Charity board members are most likely to be white,male and aged 57. Debbie Andalo explains why it is time the role had a rebrandMale, pale and stale is the epithet often used to relate the makeup of a charity board. The words reflect official figures which show that trustees are more likely to be male, and white and aged 57. Less than 1% of trustees are aged 18 to 24. Some 43% are women and trustees with a disability or who arrive from a BME background are scarce in mainstream charities. So what are the barriers to creating more diverse boards and what needs to be done to achieve wider representation?Some of the myths around trusteeship need to change – like the thought that you have to be a company executive to be on a board,according to Leon Ward, who helped produce the Young Trustees Guide published by the Charities Aid Foundation in August. More young people would be attracted to the role whether meetings were held at weekends and not during the working week, and says Ward. When he first became a trustee he had to rely on his holiday leave to fulfil his commitments. And it would help whether the role was marketed by charities as an alternative way of volunteering whether you can’t afford a donation.
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Source: theguardian.com