Trustees, Trustees, Governance

From Here to Diversity: A practical guide to recruiting Black and Asian charity trustees

Your charity's board of trustees could be missing out on a considerable pool of talent, skills and experience by failing to reach more racially diverse networks.

Individuals from Black and Asian backgrounds are significantly under-represented on charity trustee boards with 92% of trustees being white, older and above average for income and education. There is an urgent need for charities to recruit Black and Asian trustees who have the skills and experience, including ‘lived experience’ to support the issues which charities seek to address. From Here to Diversity shows that increased diversity can offer so many advantages to forward-looking organisations, including:

  • Improved performance and better governance
  • Greater creativity and a wider perspective
  • Increased legitimacy and accountability

This practical guide reveals the lessons from over 70 charities as well as outlining the recruitment challenges and solutions for charities in sectors with traditionally narrow trustee profiles. It also shares the journey of Action for Trustee Racial Diversity to develop a unique database of over 500 Black and Asian network organisations across all sectors from which charities might recruit more diverse trustees.

The guide will be invaluable for all charitable boards that are passionate about improving diversity.

Who is this book for?

Chairs and CEOs of charities of all sizes who are keen to diversify their boards but don’t really know how and where to start.

Trustee recruitment consultancies which support charities seeking to reach and recruit more diverse trustees.

Individuals from Black and Asian backgrounds wishing to become trustees whether to develop their career, build their skills, support a cause they’re passionate about; this guide will help them understand the barriers and challenges and what they might need to do to address them.

 

‘At the Association of Chairs, many Chairs ask us “how can we recruit more Black and Asian trustees?”. It’s great to have this new guide. It explores the barriers to recruitment and highlights the many different networks that are a potential source of Black and Asian trustees from many walks of life who can be a good match for your charity. A very useful resource.’

Ros Oakley, Association of Chairs

 

‘Reach Volunteering is proud to collaborate with Action for Trustee Racial Diversity who have provided amazing leadership to charities on increasing the racial diversity of Trustee Boards.’

Janet Thorne, CEO, Reach Volunteering

This full-colour, print version of the guide is available exclusively from DSC, but a free download is accessible from www.gettingonboard.org and ATRD’s website www.atrd.group.

Look inside

Have a look inside From Here to Diversity: A practical guide to recruiting Black and Asian charity trustees.

About the authors

 From Here to Diversity – a practical guide to recruiting Black and Asian charity trustees was created by Action for Trustee Racial Diversity (ATRD), a volunteer-led group founded in 2019 to campaign on increasing racial diversity on charity Boards. It works in partnership with Getting on Board, a charity that helps individuals, employers and members of professional networks become new leaders in communities through board-level volunteering. The guide was written by Malcolm John, the founder of ATRD and a trustee of the Association of Chairs, the support body for charity chairs in England and Wales. Malcolm has previously been a trustee of seven other charities varying in size over the last 20 years.

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Price £9.95

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