Gareth’s blog: Celebrating the work of our trustees

Gareth’s blog: Celebrating the work of our trustees

Did you know that across the UK, nearly 1 million people volunteer week in, week out as trustees to help charities to thrive?

It’s those trustees that help over 180,000 charities up and down the UK to do the work that they do.

The role of a trustee is vital to the governance of a charity. Part of the trustee role is to ensure that their charity operates in a safe, legal and compliant way. But there’s much more to it than that.

Trustees are also there to provide essential leadership, strategic direction, support and scrutiny.

How our trustees support Forget Me Not

At Forget Me Not, our trustees come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We have doctors and other health professionals, leaders of large local organisations, finance experts, change and project management professionals, HR, legal and governance experts and commercial leaders. Some are retired or semi-retired, but most are still in full time jobs and still manage to find time to volunteer for us. That’s right, all of our trustees volunteer their time for free!

Their wide range of expertise and experience provides valuable challenge, scrutiny and support to our senior leadership team and allows us to be confident as an organisation that we have a firm hold on all of the governance areas that are required to run an effective charity.

Trustees sit on our main board, but we also have sub-committees where they are able to channel their relevant skillsets to their best use within specific areas of the charity.

The satisfaction that comes from being a trustee

I know first-hand how much satisfaction comes from being a trustee. Until recently I was a trustee for the Scouts here in West Yorkshire, and have been for a number of years. And more recently I have also been a trustee for the Margaret Carey Foundation (now Upcycle), a charity based in Bradford and doing great work across the country.

Being a trustee can help you develop personally, widen your experience in a different sector and help you to learn new skills. Importantly, being a trustee is a great way for you to make a big difference at the very heart of a charity and a community. You can see the difference that you make and there’s no bigger satisfaction than that.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of the trustees past and present who have supported Forget Me Not along its journey. There’s a lot to be proud of, and we can’t do what we do without you!

To find out more about Trustee Week, check out this useful link. Maybe you could become a trustee yourself! You can meet our trustees here.