Recruiting trustees with lived experience

“Lived experience” refers to the unique insights and understanding someone gains through their personal identity, background, and life journey — beyond formal education or professional qualifications. This can include experiences shaped by race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or specific life circumstances. 

For a charity to truly reflect and serve its community, it’s important that its board includes people with relevant lived experience. The closer your board is to the realities of the people you support, the more informed and impactful its decisions will be. 

Relying solely on professional expertise can create a disconnect. Without trustees who have direct experience of the issues your charity works on, you risk making strategic decisions that don’t fully align with the needs of those you serve. 

Reflect on who you need (and why)

If you’re recruiting trustees with lived experience for the first time, be clear about the value it brings to your charity. Start by assessing who is missing from your board through discussions and board audits.

For example: 

• A nature reserve charity noticing underrepresentation of South Asian visitors might seek a trustee with strong ties to that community to help identify barriers and build connections.
• A rehabilitation centre might recruit a trustee with lived experience to ensure that proposed services outlined in its 5-year strategy align with beneficiaries' real needs. 

Recruit in groups 

One person with lived experience can not speak for a whole community. It can really help to have at least two or three people with lived experience on the board. This enriches the discussion and helps other trustees remember that people have different experiences. It also means that the one trustee does carry sole responsibility for speaking about lived experience. 

Being the first and only minoritised person in a professional setting like a trustee meeting can be an exhausting and lonely experience. Recruiting in groups can help address this.

If it is not possible to recruit more than one trustee, consider how you can mitigate these challenges. Ask the lived experience trustee about what support they would find most useful.    

Advertise in a sensitive, inclusive way

Consider these best practices when crafting adverts, recruitment packs, and during the shortlisting process: 

• Be specific: Clearly state who you’re looking for and why. For example: “We welcome applications from [women, people of colour, under-30s, individuals with lived experience of homelessness] to make our board more representative of our community.”
• Encourage wider contributions: Invite candidates to share additional skills, knowledge, or experience that relate to  your mission.
• Respect privacy: Some forms of lived experience aren’t visible, and candidates aren’t obliged to disclose them during the process (or indeed ever! ). Some people will be happy to talk about this, for others it may be painful to do so. Make it clear in your advert that disclosure is not an expectation. This may make the process a little tricker but you’ll likely get the holistic benefit of a trustee’s lived experience whether they’ve disclosed it or not.
• Address (so called) imposter syndrome: many people from minoritised backgrounds and people who have experienced structural disadvantage can experience this. Make it clear what your charity values about their experience and that there is training and support to help address any barriers applicants may encounter. 

Use accessible channels to promote your advert. For example: 

• Translate it into relevant languages if targeting specific communities.
• Share it through local and / or specialist organisations, community centres, schools, supermarkets, bus shelters, and your own service centres and volunteer communications.
• Include a QR code linking directly to the full advert on your website. 

Review your induction process

Your new trustees may have deep lived experience but little boardroom experience. If that is the case, support them to learn the ropes though a good induction. 

• Demystify governance: explain boardroom terminology, acronyms, meeting protocols and how to read finance papers.
• Offer inclusive support: make it easy to claim expenses; offer training and reasonable adjustments to all trustees to avoid singling anyone out.
• Offer a buddy: pair the trustee with a more experienced trustee and set up initial meetings for before and after their first board meeting. The buddy can help them understand the papers in advance, and answer questions afterwards
• Review and adapt: Regularly evaluate your induction process to ensure inclusivity. Consider practical changes, such as meeting locations, times, and access to technology like Wi-Fi or laptops. 

For more tips, see our guide on recruiting first-time trustees. 

Don’t pigeonhole 

Lived experience trustees bring a wealth of insights beyond their personal experiences. Unfortunately, boards often assume that their lived experience trustee has expertise only in their lived experience, limiting their contribution. You can make sure this doesn’t happen by setting up good recruitment practices that foster enabling environments and safe spaces. Your whole board will benefit.