Trustee Recruitment

Trustee Recruitment

NED Capital recruits charity trustees, housing association board members and social enterprise directors for UK not-for-profit organisations. Trustee recruitment is one of the most under-resourced governance functions in the voluntary sector — the majority of charities recruit trustees through informal networks, existing board connections and word of mouth, producing boards that reflect the existing trustees’ networks rather than the organisation’s actual governance needs.

We bring the same research-led, direct-approach methodology to trustee recruitment that we apply to commercial NED searches — identifying candidates with the specific skills the board needs, approaching them directly and assessing their governance competency and commitment before presenting them for interview. Adrian Lawrence FCA, founder of NED Capital and Fellow of the ICAEW, leads every trustee search mandate personally.

Call 0203 137 2496 or email recruitment@nedcapital.co.uk to discuss a trustee recruitment mandate.

How Trustee Recruitment Differs from Commercial NED Recruitment

Trustee recruitment shares the same governance intent as commercial NED recruitment — placing experienced, independent board-level individuals to provide oversight and challenge — but the practical context is different in several important respects.

Remuneration. Under Charity Commission guidance, charity trustees cannot be paid for their trustee role without specific authorisation from the Commission or explicit power in the charity’s governing document. Most trustee roles in the pure charity sector are therefore unremunerated — the candidate motivation is cause-related commitment rather than financial return. This fundamentally changes the candidate pool: the most suitable trustees for a given mandate are often people with a personal connection to the cause or sector, not simply the most commercially experienced board directors available.

Legal duties. Charity trustees owe duties under charity law as well as, for charitable companies and CIOs, under company law. Their primary legal obligation is to act in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries — a duty that can create genuine tension with commercial governance instincts. Candidates from the commercial world who have not previously served as charity trustees sometimes underestimate this difference. We assess it specifically in trustee candidate interviews.

Governance framework. Trustees operate under the Charity Commission’s governance expectations — including the Charity Governance Code — rather than the FRC or QCA codes that apply to commercial company boards. The Code covers board effectiveness, diversity, integrity, openness and accountability, and provides the governance benchmark against which trustee boards should self-assess. We advise clients on the Code’s specific requirements for the trustee composition and board structure relevant to their organisation.

Volunteer availability. Trustee roles require genuine time commitment — board meetings, subcommittee work, preparation and, for committee chairs, additional accountability. Candidates for unremunerated roles must balance this commitment against professional and personal obligations without the financial return that justifies a NED’s time investment. Assessing genuine availability and sustained commitment for a trustee role requires a different conversation than negotiating the time commitment for a paid NED appointment.

Types of Trustee We Recruit

Finance-qualified trustees and treasurers. The most commonly requested trustee profile across the sector. Charities require at least one trustee with genuine financial expertise — the ability to review management accounts, understand the audit, assess the charity’s financial risk and provide informed oversight of the finance function. The most sought-after profile is a qualified accountant with current or recent audit committee experience, ideally in a charity or public sector context. NED Capital’s connection to the commercial finance director market through our sister firm FD Capital gives us particular depth in sourcing finance-qualified trustee candidates.

Charity chairs. The chair of a charity board carries specific responsibilities — leading the board, managing the relationship between the board and the chief executive, and often acting as the principal point of contact with the Charity Commission and major funders. Charity chair searches require candidates with prior charity governance experience, the interpersonal skills to lead a volunteer board and, ideally, familiarity with the particular mission or beneficiary group of the organisation. We run charity chair searches as separate mandates from standard trustee searches, with a longer timeline and more extensive candidate engagement.

Sector specialist trustees. Many trustee briefs require specific sector expertise — clinical governance knowledge for health charities, planning and development experience for housing associations, educational policy familiarity for further education bodies, or legal expertise for organisations navigating complex regulatory environments. We source sector-specific candidates through targeted research in the relevant professional communities rather than relying on general not-for-profit networks.

Diversity mandate appointments. Boards seeking to improve the diversity of their trustee cohort — across gender, ethnicity, disability, professional background or lived experience of the charity’s beneficiary group — benefit from a structured search approach rather than informal network recruitment, which tends to replicate existing board demographics. We advise on how to structure diversity-focused trustee searches in a way that is both legally appropriate and practically effective.

Housing association board members. Housing associations operate under a more complex governance framework than most charities — subject to regulation by the Regulator of Social Housing, with board composition requirements and specific expectations around finance, risk and development expertise. Housing association board members may receive modest remuneration, unlike most charity trustees. We place housing association board members across a range of registered provider types and income sizes.

Our Trustee Recruitment Process

1. Governance review and brief. We begin with a conversation with the chief executive or chair to review the current board composition, identify the governance gap the trustee appointment needs to fill, confirm the applicable governance framework and agree the candidate profile. For charity trustee appointments, we also discuss the remuneration position — whether the role is unremunerated, whether expenses are payable, and whether any Charity Commission authorisation is required if nominal remuneration is proposed.

2. Candidate identification. We identify trustee candidates through our board-level network and targeted professional research. For finance-qualified trustee mandates, we draw on our connection to the commercial finance director and CFO market. For sector-specific trustee mandates, we research the relevant professional and voluntary sector networks. We do not rely on a generic charity trustee database — the quality of trustee candidates found through targeted research consistently exceeds that of candidates registered on standard trustee banks.

3. Candidate assessment. We interview all candidates against the brief, assessing: prior trustee or board governance experience; sector knowledge and cause connection; understanding of charity trustee duties; time availability against the mandate commitment; and genuine motivation for the role. For finance-qualified trustee mandates, we assess the depth and currency of financial expertise specifically. For charity chair mandates, we assess prior charity leadership experience and interpersonal style.

4. Shortlist and recommendation. We present a shortlist of three to five candidates with written profiles and our recommendation. Trustee shortlists are typically delivered within two weeks of mandate acceptance. We note any governance considerations relevant to each candidate — including potential conflicts with existing board relationships, funder connections or beneficiary group associations.

5. Appointment support. We support the client interview process and, where required, assist with the Charity Commission notification process for new trustee appointments. We provide guidance on trustee induction good practice and the governance expectations that incoming trustees should understand before their first board meeting.

Trustee Recruitment by Organisation Type

Registered charities. From small local charities with volunteer boards to national organisations with complex governance structures and professional management teams, we work across the full range of registered charity types. The brief, the candidate profile and the search methodology are calibrated to the specific governance stage of the organisation — a board of three volunteers managing a £200k income charity requires a different approach to the trustee board of an £8m charity with a professional chief executive and paid staff.

Charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs). CIOs are regulated exclusively by the Charity Commission and their trustees carry duties under charity law without the additional company law overlay that applies to charitable companies limited by guarantee. We advise clients on the governance implications of their legal structure at brief stage.

Housing associations and registered social landlords. Regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing, housing associations require board members with specific competencies in finance, development, asset management, resident engagement and risk governance. Board member remuneration in the housing association sector is increasingly common, particularly for organisations with significant balance sheets or development programmes. We place housing association board members across the full range of registered provider types.

Further education colleges and academies. FE colleges are governed by corporation boards; academy trusts by multi-academy trust boards with specific accountability to the Department for Education. Both require trustees with educational governance knowledge alongside the standard finance, HR and strategic expertise expected of any board member. We have experience of both FE and academy trust governance frameworks and can advise on the specific trustee profile requirements for each.

Social enterprises and community interest companies. Social enterprises operating as CICs or community benefit societies require board members who combine commercial acumen with mission alignment — a profile that generalist trustee networks often struggle to source. We draw on our commercial NED network for social enterprise mandates where commercial expertise is a priority.

Trustee Remuneration

The question of trustee remuneration is one of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of charity governance. Under the Charities Act 2011, charity trustees cannot receive payment for their trustee services unless the charity’s governing document explicitly permits it, the Charity Commission has authorised it, or the specific payment falls within one of the statutory exceptions. Most charities — particularly smaller ones — do not have the required authorisation and should not pay trustees without taking advice.

The position for housing associations is different: the Regulator of Social Housing permits board member remuneration and most larger housing associations pay their board members, typically in the range of £5,000–£18,000 per annum for non-chair roles.

Trustee expenses — travel, accommodation, subsistence incurred in connection with trustee duties — may be reimbursed by any charity without specific authorisation. Many charities fail to make this clear to prospective trustees, which can unnecessarily discourage candidates who would otherwise be willing to serve.