Noelle Rumball: Joining a board for financial return changes the ecosystem

Eight in 10 charities operate on less than £100,000 per year and have no paid staff and no volunteers other than their trustees. In that context, it makes a lot of sense for the Charity Commission to forbid paying trustees, even if there have always been accommodations for very large and complex charities.

But the guidance has changed. CC11 now allows any charity – without asking any questions or requiring any substantive arguments – to make payments to its trustees of up to £1,000 per year across its board. There are three conditions: (1) the governing documents must not explicitly prohibit it; (2) you must fill in a Charity Commission request form; and (3) the payment can’t be spread across all trustees – some must remain volunteers. With justifications, charities can request a higher payment, though the commission may decline.

But the majority of charities will never be able to afford to pay their trustees, even if they want to. Most of the sector is made up of tiny charities that live or die on £5 margins, and paying their trustees is never going to be an option. In an environment where recruiting trustees is already very hard, normalising trustee pay may make it impossible.

It also introduces a conflict of interest into a boardroom, one that isn’t an issue for other entities. If paid, a trustee risks becoming more focused on the financial health of the charity and its ability to keep paying them, rather than on how well it serves its beneficiaries.

Trusteeship can be made more affordable by reviewing the expenses policy. Is it limited to food and travel, or does it include things like childcare? Is it easy to make a claim?

So, why introduce the option of paying trustees? The simple answer is that nothing else solves the problem of people who can’t afford to donate their time.

Unemployed people, shift workers, gig workers, artists and freelancers are all likely to struggle to attend meetings or events without turning down work, and the Charity Commission doesn’t allow claiming back lost earnings as an expense. Acutely marginalised groups are in a similar position. Arts and Homelessness International recently mandated that half of its board would be people with lived experience of homelessness, and it got approval from the commission to make those positions paid in order to facilitate take-up.

Some charities (usually larger ones) may also find that the time commitment they need from trustees is incompatible with a full-time job, particularly for chairing roles. Charities that know they need a day a week or more, and can afford to pay for it, are increasingly offering remuneration, so they aren’t limited to a talent pool that works part-time or not at all.

Paying trustees can also address the ethics of asking certain people to volunteer. There is a growing movement against unpaid internships for young people. For many, volunteering as a trustee smells like just another unpaid internship. Trusteeships are hugely beneficial when you’re just starting out, but that’s also when you’re least likely to have a supportive employer or get paid time away. As with unpaid internships, it is those who already have privilege and access who can most easily afford to get more.

Similarly, as charity boards are scrambling to recruit more diverse trustees, there are increasing numbers of professionals from minoritised groups who, wary of exploitation, are rejecting unpaid board positions on principle. They might be willing to be paid to be the token minority trustee, but they’re certainly not going to volunteer for it.

But in the end trustees are still volunteers, and that volunteer status is part of the bedrock of charity as a concept: experienced professionals donating their time and energy to lead organisations that make our world a better place. Joining charitable boards for financial returns – instead of purely to fulfil a passion for the cause – fundamentally changes the ecosystem. Should your board be considering a change to its ecosystem?

Noelle Rumball serves on five boards, including as chair of Creative Youth Network and co-chair of Bristol Students’ Union

This is the last of Noelle’s excellent Chair’s corner columns, and G&L wishes to thank her for her thoughtful and incisive contributions over the last two years.