What makes an effective Trustee Board?

An effective Trustee Board plays a critical role in guiding the charity towards achieving its mission and addressing the needs of its beneficiaries.

A high-performing board generally demonstrates the following six key components and attributes: 

1. Clearly articulated and understood roles and responsibilities  

Roles and responsibilities should be clearly articulated and understood, with appropriate delineation between Management and Trustees.  

2. Commitment to the charity’s mission and strategy  

Trustees should understand and care about the charity’s Mission and be willing to commit the necessary time to help drive forwards the charity’s strategy. An effective board will be helping ensure the charity’s strategy is clearly defined, aligned to beneficiaries’ needs and that progress against that strategy is effectively monitored against.  

3. A complementary set of skills and experience, further enhanced through suitable training and succession planning  

Trustee boards are ideally made up of individuals with a diverse set of backgrounds, skills and experiences. This will allow Trustees to support and challenge Management on a broad range of topics and should result in a good level of diversity of viewpoints. The Board should consider whether the breadth and depth of the Trustees’ knowledge is adequate to suitably scrutinise and challenge the changing nature of risks that the organisation faces, including risks such as cyber risk and AI governance.

Additionally, the skill set of the Trustee Board should be enhanced through a suitable induction process and through the commitment of sufficient time to training and development.  

A dynamic and comprehensive succession plan should be in place for Trustees. A proactive approach is required to find the best available successors in good time prior to a Trustee’s required departure, and the phasing of potential departures – multiple departures will serve to exacerbate the risks of knowledge drain.  

4. A supportive and challenging approach to working with management

The relationship between Senior Management and Trustees should be collegiate and supportive, characterised by a good level of respectful but robust challenge. This should drive mutual respect between the two cohorts and an understanding of each other’s respective responsibilities. The Trustees should also collaborate well with one another and look to form a cohesive team. It is best practice to take time to meet with one another outside of board meetings to develop relationships and ensure that board time is spent with effective focus on the key matters.

5. An effective chair  

The Chair should be effective in their role and in maintaining focus around the board table. It is a role that requires significant commitment, time and dedication; and represents an opportunity to make a very significant impact.

Effectively chaired board meetings will ensure that the Board has sufficient debate on major decisions or contentious issues before decisions are taken. The Chair can also help ensure that there is no dominant personality or voice on the board and that the Board focuses on the big issues and not the minutiae.  

6. Assessment  

Boards should review their own performance and that of individual Trustees, including the Chair. The Charity Governance Code strongly encourages that larger charities complete self-assessments as part of good governance practice. This should happen every year, ideally with an external evaluation every three years. Externally facilitated board effectiveness reviews enable charity boards to stand back and assess their strengths and areas for development through an independent lens and to identify the changes that will enable them to achieve their full potential.