Increasing racial diversity on charity Boards

What will you be doing?

Are you an energetic and enthusiastic volunteer with good research, analysis, communication and organisational skills who will help us drive this important project forward?

You will be volunteering for Reach Volunteering in partnership with the independent project co-ordinator, Malcolm John. Your main responsibility will be to support Malcolm John in liaising with not for profit organisations and private sector organisations to encourage and promote support for the initiative and seek to bring their collective resources together to address the under-representation of people from BAME backgrounds on charity boards.

Main tasks                                                                     

• To help to research and map current and planned activity aimed at increasing BAME diversity by contacting relevant organisations and researching online and through identified networks.
• To help to identify and draw up a list of senior level (Chairs, CEOs, Executive Directors) champions from the not for profit sector and using peers and their networks to achieve this
• To help draw up a list of potential BAME trustees from existing databases and other relevant sources; liaising with diversity consultants; second tier organisations and others
• To help identify BAME channels, including publications, websites and social media for advertising for trustees
• To liaise with and help organise meetings of relevant organisations
• Writing progress and update reports 

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a person who has a strong commitment to social justice and can evidence the following personal skills:  

• Communication: good oral and written skills
• Attention to detail
• Reliability
• Determination to follow actions through and chase people up
• Research and analytical skills

• A self-starter and with good time management
• Energy and enthusiasm

You should also have:

• Access to the internet and a telephone
• A good understanding of the charitable sector 
• Good understanding and expertise in using social media 
• Experience of one or more of following: project management, stakeholder management, data and gap analysis; market research

What difference will you make?

Your contribution will help to find sustainable solutions to the longstanding equality and diversity issue of under-representation of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds on charity Boards. 

This initiative comes at a time when diversity and inclusion is becoming increasingly important on the civil society agenda and when we should now be turning words into concrete actions. Diversity is widely acknowledged to increase the quality of organisational decision making. Recruiting more diverse trustees is very likely to make the leadership of charities much more representative of the communities they serve.