Digital Trustees — growth and impact
Recruiting Black and Asian trustees, how small charities offer a different kind of value from their larger counterparts and how we deliver impact at scale.
It’s been a while since I’ve written about Digital Trustees because we are moving at a million miles an hour on this programme. After today’s online matchmaking event I thought it was time to pause and reflect.
Our monthly events continue to gather momentum, bringing charities and tech professionals into an online space for 60 minutes of matchmaking.
I have been blown away by the calibre of tech professionals joining us at our matchmaking events recently — everyone from a senior engineer at Google to well-known leader specialising in AI.
We also now offer digital, data and design professionals the chance to add their profile to our matchmaking platform. We have some incredible people looking to join charity boards right now 👇
There’s also a range of charities looking for Digital Trustees at the moment. Any third sector organisation can add a live profile and we can support with their matchmaking
There’s been lots of interesting discussions happening around governance during Small Charities Week that shaping our approach to Digital Trustees, one that stuck with me is Penny Wilson’s point that:
“People sometimes think being a trustee of a small charity is less valuable than being a trustee of a larger charity…Small organisations do not have less intrinsic value than large organisations. Small charities can literally reach parts larger charities cannot because they are connected to/part of/born out of their community and because they can be off-the-scale nimble and responsive.”
Another person I respect greatly, who recently spoke at our matchmaking event, is Malcolm John at Action for Trustee Racial Diversity. Malcolm’s talk really helped frame our latest round of matchmaking and his work is shaping how board diversity is approached in the UK.
Their new guide — From Here to Diversity: A practical guide for recruiting Black and Asian Charity Trustees - aims to help charities take positive and sustainable steps to increase the racial diversity of their Boards.
We have had some lovely feedback for our Digital Trustees work of late and I really like this one from Elaine Crichton, who leads on Inspiring Scotland’s specialist volunteer network work:
Third Sector Lab have really hit on a great concept matching digital experts to charities. Board recruitment should always be driven by skill set gaps and digital is a huge gap for most charity boards. Charities transitioned to a digital world during lockdown but now they need that digital expertise embedded in their strategic thinking.
Good governance and strategic oversight are critical if charities are to make the most of the opportunities that digital, data and design offer.
Digital Trustees is part of Third Sector Lab’s broader approach to delivering impact at scale in the voluntary sector. Rooted in the practical solutions charities need in the here and now.
It sits alongside The Curve — our free digital skills training programme that has now trained over 7000 people in the sector. As well as our Open Working Programme that’s helping build transparency and a digital re-use culture within the sector.
At the moment we are funded entirely by The Catalyst — a network I am incredibly proud to be part of. We are creating real momentum and have an opportunity to scale up.
To grow our work we need further support if we are to realise our ambition of getting a digital trustee on every charity board in the UK.
If you’d like to chat about how you can support our Digital Trustees work please get in touch on LinkedIn and we can have a chat.
I’m really keen to speak to funding bodies, community foundations, membership bodies, third sector interfaces, volunteering organisations and others passionate about getting digital on the board agenda.
