If you have spent any time trying to fill a trustee seat at a small or founder-led charity, you have probably noticed something the popular recruitment guides skip: finding willing people is not the hard part. Plenty of people will take a coffee meeting, kick around ideas, and tell you they would love to help.
The hard part is finding people who will actually do the work once they are seated. The ones who will review the management accounts with your treasurer, sign off the annual return and Trustees' Annual Report, read the governing document before a vote, and make a real personal gift during the annual appeal. As one founder put it in a recent interview: "As easy as it has been to find people who are willing to talk with me and help me, it has been really difficult to find board members. They wanna help, but they don't wanna help that much."
This guide is built around that gap. We will walk through 10 places to source trustee candidates, then layer on the parts most listicles skip: a needs assessment so you know what you are recruiting for, an evaluation framework that screens for commitment rather than enthusiasm, and the local UK programmes (NCVO, local Councils for Voluntary Service, UK Community Foundations) that the best-performing small charities actually lean on.
In this article:
10 ways to find trustees for your charity
The list comes first because most readers searching this topic want sourcing tactics. But sourcing without a plan is how you end up with a board of trustees recruited on enthusiasm and stuck without a treasurer. After the list, we cover how to plan, evaluate, and vet so the names you find actually convert into working trustees.
A note for newer organisations: if you are an unincorporated association, a Community Interest Company (CIC), or a village hall debating whether to register with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW), your first task may be constituting a governing body rather than filling a vacant seat. CCEW requires at least three unrelated trustees for registration (charities with income above £5,000, or any income for Charitable Incorporated Organisations). The Charity Commission for England and Wales publishes straightforward registration guidance to help you get started.
1. Recruit from your existing volunteer pool
Your active volunteers have already self-selected as committed. They know your programmes, they have shown up on weekends, and many bring professional skills from their day jobs (accounting, marketing, law, HR) that map directly to trustee work. Start the funnel here before going anywhere external.
A practical move for small charities: use a free supporter and donor CRM to segment your most engaged supporters, tag volunteers by skill set and hours contributed, and shortlist the ones who already act like trustees. Zeffy's free supporter and donor CRM is used by 100K+ charities and not-for-profits globally, with £2B+ raised, because it makes this kind of segmentation easy at no cost. Supporters who have Gift Aided every donation are worth tagging separately: a signed Gift Aid declaration alongside months of regular volunteering is one of the cleanest commitment signals you have.
For a small charity: this is the single highest-conversion channel you have. The cold professional network on LinkedIn looks bigger, but a volunteer who has shown up 30 Saturdays is a better bet than a stranger with a polished CV.
2. Become part of your donors' networks
Recurring donors are the other group that has already proved commitment. They have put money behind your mission, often quietly, for months or years. Many of them have networks you do not (corporate, civic, faith-based) and can either serve themselves or refer someone who fits.
Look first at donors who give by Direct Debit, donors who renewed annual gifts two or more years in a row, and donors who have increased their gift. These signals are the closest thing you have to a commitment score. A supporter who has signed a Gift Aid declaration and given regularly for two-plus years has met a real commitment threshold that maps well to trustee-level buy-in. Under HMRC's Gift Aid scheme, the charity reclaims 25p for every £1 a UK taxpayer donates, making regular Gift Aiders your highest-value and highest-trust supporter segment.
For a small charity: the people who already give without being chased are the ones most likely to say yes to the unglamorous work. Mine that list before posting publicly.
3. Take nominations from current trustees
Your current board of trustees (or advisory team, if you are pre-board) knows the gaps better than anyone. Ask each trustee to nominate one or two candidates, and ask them to name the specific gap that person fills (legal, finance, fundraising, lived experience). Nominations without a named gap are how boards end up homogeneous.
One UK-specific note: nominations must keep the independence test in mind. CCEW guidance expects a majority of trustees to be unrelated: no close family ties, no significant business relationships. This does not mean trustees cannot know each other, but it does mean the board must be able to act independently of any single individual's interests.
For a small charity: this works best when you have already written a needs assessment (see below). Without one, you get nominations based on who your trustees like, not who your charity needs.
4. Search for trustees who represent your mission
Recruit people whose lived experience or expertise aligns with what you actually do. A housing charity benefits from a planning or property professional. A food-access organisation benefits from someone who has used food assistance. A free-clinic board benefits from a clinician and from a patient.
For a small charity: lived experience is not a checkbox; it shapes which programmes actually work. Recruit for it on purpose.
5. Spread the word, but target it
Generic "we are recruiting trustees" social posts get generic responses. A targeted message to a segmented shortlist of your most engaged supporters gets real candidates.
If your CRM and email live in one place, you can email a segmented shortlist directly from your dashboard with a personal subject line and read each open as a signal of interest. That is a different kind of response than a public post.
For a small charity: broadcast posts are fine for awareness. Real recruiting happens one segmented email at a time.
6. Attend UK governance and trustee-development events
Governance trainings, trustee-development workshops, and sector conferences are full of two useful groups: current trustees looking to deepen their skills (good for development on your existing board) and professionals exploring their first trustee seat (good for sourcing). Some of the most productive UK events and networks:
- Getting on Board runs training and events specifically for people entering trustee service for the first time, with a strong diversity focus.
- NCVO Trustee Networks offer peer connection and governance development for trustees across the sector.
- Association of Chairs supports chair development specifically.
- Local Councils for Voluntary Service (CVS) run trustee-recruitment surgeries in most UK regions.
For a small charity: pick one or two events a year and send your chair plus one prospect. It is networking and a soft interview at the same time.
7. Build a simple trustee-recruitment page
A short page on your website is worth more than ten social posts. Include the role description (see the needs assessment section below), the time commitment in hours per month, the financial expectation (give, get, or both), and a brief interest form.
The page does two things at once: it qualifies candidates (the wrong-fit people self-select out when they see the time and giving expectation) and it gives current trustees and supporters a link they can forward.
For a small charity: a one-page interest form beats a formal application portal. You want to make it easy to raise a hand, then do the real vetting in conversation.
8. Use UK trustee-matching platforms honestly
There are several UK-specific platforms and organisations built to connect charities with trustee candidates. Here is what each actually offers so you can use them well.
- Reach Volunteering is the UK's largest skills-based volunteering and trustee-matching platform. It is free for charities to post trustee roles and is the pragmatic first stop for most small charities.
- Getting on Board is a charity dedicated specifically to first-time trustee recruitment and diversity. It runs the annual Trustees' Week campaign in November alongside NCVO and CCEW. Post here to reach candidates actively looking for their first role.
- Trustees Unlimited (a joint venture with NCVO, Russam, and Bates Wells) is a paid recruitment service aimed at chair, treasurer, and specialist roles for mid-to-large charities. Worth the cost only when you need a specialist seat filled quickly.
- Charity Excellence (Ian McLintock's free UK charity community of around 50,000 members, growing steadily) is an informal but real sourcing network, particularly useful for smaller organisations that need peer connections, not agency fees.
The honest framing: post to Reach Volunteering and Getting on Board first (free, UK-tuned, real diversity focus). Trustees Unlimited only if you can pay and you need a specialist role fast.
For a small charity: post the role, but do not expect any platform to filter for commitment. That is still on you.
9. Recruit across generations and lived experience
A board of seven trustees who all look, earn, and live alike will make blind-spot decisions. Recruiting younger members, members who have used your programmes, and members from the communities you serve is not a tick-box exercise; it is risk management. The Charity Governance Code explicitly recommends that boards actively reflect the communities they serve, and CCEW's guidance on trustee diversity reinforces this.
Practical sourcing for younger talent in the UK:
- Young Charity Trustees network and the Association of Young Trustees for under-30 trustees already active in the sector.
- The Junior Lawyers Division (Law Society) for first-time board candidates from the legal profession.
- ICAEW's young-member networks for finance-minded trustee candidates.
- Getting on Board's young-trustee diversity work.
- Graduate programmes and student union volunteering at local universities.
For a small charity: one or two intentional recruits per year reshapes a small board quickly. You do not need a lengthy diversity plan; you need to widen the pool you actually source from.
10. Make a personal, specific ask
The best recruitment ask is not a public posting; it is a personal note that names the gap, the duty, and the time commitment. Consider something like: "We need a treasurer who can sign off the monthly management accounts, the annual return, and the Trustees' Annual Report. About eight hours a month. Three-year term. You came to mind because..." That approach beats every clever campaign.
For a small charity: the personal ask, sent to a shortlist of five or six, is the move that actually fills the seat.
Start with a trustee needs assessment
Most trustee-recruitment failures happen before sourcing starts. The charity has not written down what it actually needs, so it recruits on enthusiasm and ends up with a board of trustees full of people who like the mission but cannot cover the duties.
Before you post anywhere or ask for a single nomination, do this:
Write a one-page role description that names the boring parts
Most trustee "job descriptions" are an inspiring paragraph about mission, plus "attend meetings." That is what produces the gala-only board.
Write a real description. List the actual recurring duties: monthly financial review, annual return sign-off, Trustees' Annual Report and Accounts (TAR) sign-off, Gift Aid claim oversight, SORP-compliant accounts review, governing document and policy review, fundraising commitment (give, get, or both, expressed as a clear expectation), grant-writing contribution, committee membership, and event presence. If the charity spends over £100,000 per year on fundraising, add Fundraising Regulator Code compliance review. Name the time commitment in hours per month. Name the term length. Name what is unacceptable (missing two meetings in a row, no giving at any level).
Float the less glamorous parts to the top. Anyone who self-selects out at this stage is doing you a favour.
Anchor the description to the six trustee duties
Every trustee, by law and by Charity Commission (CC3) guidance, owes the organisation six core duties. These are the floor, not the ceiling, and your role description should make clear that every seat carries them:
- 1. Ensure the charity carries out its purposes for the public benefit (Charities Act 2011, s.3).
- 2. Comply with the charity's governing document and the law.
- 3. Act in the charity's best interests (the duty of loyalty equivalent).
- 4. Manage the charity's resources responsibly (the duty of prudence).
- 5. Act with reasonable care and skill.
- 6. Ensure the charity is accountable (to regulators, beneficiaries, and the public).
For charities registered in Scotland, OSCR operates a parallel trustee-duty framework under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (see OSCR). Charities in Northern Ireland are subject to CCNI's equivalent framework (see CCNI).
A brief word on liability: trustees can be personally liable in narrow circumstances, including breach of trust or wrongful trading in a charitable company. This is worth covering honestly in any trustee-recruitment conversation. Trustee indemnity insurance is available and widely used by small charities to give trustees appropriate protection.
Build a simple skills matrix
List your current trustees down the left side of a page. Across the top, list the skills your organisation needs in the next two to three years: finance and audit, legal and compliance, fundraising and major gifts, marketing and communications, programme expertise, lived experience, HR and people, technology, and so on. Mark who has what.
Empty columns are your recruitment priorities. This is the difference between "we need another trustee" and "we need a chartered accountant who can chair the finance committee and a community member who has used our programmes."
Plan two to three years ahead
Map your strategic priorities for the next two to three years (launching a programme, applying for major grants, appointing a first CEO, building a facility) and ask which skills you will need on the board of trustees to do them well. Recruit toward that horizon, not toward the seat you need to fill this quarter.
For a small charity: this single page (role description plus skills matrix plus two-year horizon) is the most leverage you will get all year. Without it, recruitment is guesswork. With it, you know exactly what to ask for.
How to evaluate potential trustees
Once you have candidates, the work shifts from sourcing to screening. The goal is not to find someone who likes the mission; it is to find someone who will own at least one of the duties on your role description.
Interview against the role description, not the mission pitch
Walk every candidate through the written duties and ask the direct question: "Which of these will you personally own?" Vague answers ("happy to help wherever needed") are a soft no. Specific answers ("I will chair the finance committee and review the accounts monthly") are a real yes.
Use recurring giving as a commitment signal
A candidate who already gives regularly (any amount) has shown they will move money toward your mission without being asked twice. The sharpest UK signal is a supporter who gives by Direct Debit and has signed a Gift Aid declaration: regular Direct Debit giving accounts for around 31% of all UK charity donations and, paired with a Gift Aid declaration, demonstrates both financial commitment and understanding of how the sector works.
Watch for these red flags
- They cannot articulate, in 60 seconds, why they care about your mission. If the answer is corporate-speak or vague, the commitment is not there.
- They ask about compensation or perks before responsibilities. Trustee service is almost always unpaid. Anyone leading with "what do I get" is the wrong recruit.
- They have served on three or more boards of trustees in the past five years with no clear contribution at any. CV-collecting is real. Look for people who have done one thing well, not five things lightly.
- They will not commit to a give-or-get expectation. Even a small expectation (a personal annual gift at any level, plus one introduction a year) is a fairness test. If they push back on the principle, they will push back on the practice.
- They cannot state a clear position on Gift Aid and UK GDPR. A trustee who does not understand that the charity reclaims 25p per £1 from HMRC, or who is dismissive of ICO/UK GDPR obligations on supporter data, will make governance mistakes that cost money and reputation. Many charities now ask "are you GDPR compliant?" before they adopt any new tool, and trustees need to be comfortable with the same question.
A short candidate checklist
- Can name two duties from the role description they will personally own
- Has either given to the charity or volunteered before the recruitment conversation, or has a clear analogue (gave or served at a comparable organisation)
- Can articulate why your mission specifically (not charities generally) in plain language
- Is willing to accept the give-or-get expectation as written
- Has no actual or perceived conflict of interest, or has disclosed one upfront
- Two references from prior trustee, volunteer, or professional service confirm they followed through
For a small charity: it is better to leave a seat open for six months than to fill it with someone who will not own a duty. An empty chair costs you nothing; a passive trustee costs you quorum, momentum, and morale.
Building a diverse and representative board of trustees
A board of trustees that mirrors the community you serve makes better decisions. The mechanics are not complicated; they just require choosing your sourcing channels on purpose. The Charity Governance Code's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion principle (Principle 6) sets the sector expectation: boards should actively reflect the communities they serve, and the Charity Commission's guidance on trustee diversity is the free reference for any charity working on this.
Age and career-stage diversity
A board of all retired executives is wise but slow to adopt new channels. A board of all early-career professionals is fast but light on governance experience. Aim for a mix across decades. Source younger trustees through the Young Charity Trustees network, the Association of Young Trustees, Getting on Board's young-trustee work, graduate schools, and young-professional chapters of trade associations such as the Junior Lawyers Division and ICAEW.
Professional and skill diversity
Your skills matrix should already be steering this. A board of seven lawyers is a risk; a board with one solicitor, one chartered accountant, one marketer, one programme expert, one community member, and two generalists is balanced.
Lived experience relevant to your mission
If you serve a community, recruit from that community. A board that has only ever read about the population it serves will design programmes that look good on paper and underperform in practice. Source through partner organisations, alumni of your programmes, and community advisory groups.
Geographic representation
If you serve multiple neighbourhoods, regions, or rural and urban areas, do not let the board cluster in one postcode. Recruit through partner charities, faith communities, and civic organisations rooted in each area.
For a small charity: pick one diversity dimension per recruitment cycle and source intentionally for it. Trying to fix everything in one search produces a vague posting and no hires.
UK sourcing infrastructure for trustee recruitment
This is the section most guides skip, and it is often the highest-leverage one. The cheapest, most relevant recruiting infrastructure is local.
NCVO and Trustees' Week
NCVO is the national body for voluntary organisations in England. It publishes trustee guidance, hosts the Charity Governance Code, runs trustee-network events, and co-organises Trustees' Week every November (the first full week of the month). Trustees' Week is run jointly with Getting on Board, Reach Volunteering, and CCEW, and it is the single highest-leverage UK moment for trustee recruitment: candidates actively looking for their first seat surface in volume during this period. Plan your recruitment push around it.
Your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS)
Nearly every UK region has a local CVS or infrastructure body that knows the local voluntary sector better than almost any other source. They run trustee-matching events, hold lists of professionals looking for a first trustee seat, and can often suggest two or three names on a phone call. Find your local CVS via the NAVCA directory. Examples of what these bodies offer:
- London Plus and the network of London CVSs connect trustees across the capital.
- Voluntary Action Sheffield runs governance support and trustee events for South Yorkshire charities.
- Community Action Suffolk offers trustee-matching and governance training across Suffolk.
Programmes and offerings change. Check your local CVS directly to confirm what is currently available.
Reach Volunteering and Getting on Board
As noted above: Reach Volunteering is the free, UK-tuned default for online trustee-role posting. Getting on Board focuses specifically on first-time trustees and diversity. Post to both before you look anywhere else. Getting on Board also produces useful resources on running an inclusive recruitment process.
UK Community Foundations
The UK Community Foundations network (one per region, covering every part of the UK) is the closest UK analogue to US community foundations. Regional foundation programme officers know the local not-for-profit ecosystem and can often suggest professionals with sector knowledge who are looking for a trustee seat. Reach out to your regional foundation even if you are not currently applying for a grant.
Skills-based volunteering: Pilotlight and Cranfield Trust
Pilotlight matches senior business volunteers with small charities on strategic projects (typically six months). These engagements frequently become trustee pipelines: someone helps you with a project for six months and by the end you know whether they would make a strong trustee. Cranfield Trust provides pro bono management consultancy for small charities, creating a similar pipeline of skilled professionals with sector exposure.
Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales
For charities registered in Scotland, the primary infrastructure body is SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) and the trustee regulator is OSCR. For Northern Ireland: NICVA and CCNI. For Wales: WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action). Each runs its own trustee-development and matching programmes.
For a small charity: spend a morning mapping your local CVS, your regional Community Foundation, NCVO's Trustees' Week calendar, and Reach Volunteering before you spend anything on paid recruitment services. The local infrastructure is almost always free and more relevant.
Who should lead trustee recruitment?
Final sign-off rests with your chair of trustees (in UK charity governance, the chair has final authority over trustee recruitment, not the CEO). In practice the day-to-day work belongs to a nominating or governance committee.
For most small boards, that committee is two or three current trustees chartered to: (1) maintain the skills matrix and the two-year horizon, (2) keep the role description current, (3) source and screen candidates against both, and (4) recommend slates to the full board for a vote. The CEO or charity manager is a non-voting participant, helping with logistics and providing context, but the committee owns the work. The Charity Governance Code is the reference framework for how this committee should operate and how it should document its decisions.
The reason to formalise this: when recruitment is "everyone's job," it becomes no one's. A standing committee with a written charge produces a steady pipeline instead of a panicked search every time a seat opens. Your charity's governing document is the right place to define the committee's authority.
For a small charity: even a two-person governance committee, meeting quarterly, will outperform an ad-hoc search every time.
Frequently asked questions
How many trustees does a charity need?
The Charity Commission for England and Wales requires at least three unrelated trustees for registration (for charities with income above £5,000, or for any Charitable Incorporated Organisation regardless of income). The Charity Governance Code recommends that most boards function well with between 5 and 12 trustees: small enough for genuine debate, large enough to cover the necessary skill set and survive a vacancy or two. For Scotland and Northern Ireland, OSCR and CCNI publish their own minimum requirements and guidance.
How long should a trustee term be?
Most charities set three-year terms, renewable once or twice. The Charity Governance Code recommends a maximum of nine years in a single trustee role (three three-year terms) before rotating off, with limited exceptions for continuity. Defined term limits create a natural pipeline: you always know which seats are coming open, which means you can plan recruitment rather than react to sudden vacancies.
Can family members serve on the same charity board?
The Charity Commission for England and Wales expects a majority of trustees to be unrelated: close family members or people with significant business ties should not form the majority of any board. Under the Charities Act 2011, trustees who are "connected persons" must disclose that relationship, and the charity should have a written conflict-of-interest policy that covers how related-party decisions are handled. Having one or two related trustees is not automatically a problem, but the board must be demonstrably capable of acting independently on all significant matters. CCEW guidance covers this in detail.
Do UK trustees get paid?
In England and Wales, trustees are unpaid by default. Payment is only permitted if the charity's governing document expressly authorises it, or if the Charity Commission has given its consent under the Charities Act 2011 trustee-payment provisions. Reasonable out-of-pocket expenses (travel, accommodation, subsistence for trustee duties) are always reimbursable and should be. The default unpaid position applies in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well, subject to equivalent regulatory frameworks.
Where should we start searching for trustee candidates?
Start with the people already showing commitment: volunteers who have shown up consistently, and supporters who give by Direct Debit and have signed a Gift Aid declaration. Then take nominations from current trustees (with independence checks). Then post to Reach Volunteering and Getting on Board (both free). Contact your local CVS and your regional UK Community Foundation. Plan a focused push around Trustees' Week each November. Only if you need a specialist role (chair, treasurer) filled quickly should you consider a paid service such as Trustees Unlimited.
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