What we do: Recruiting trustees

Why trustee recruitment is so vital

The right trustees can make the difference between a charity that thrives and one that fails. Charities are navigating rising demand, shrinking funding, and difficult choices. Good governance is not just a safeguard, but a decisive factor in whether a charity can succeed. Boards need a breadth of expertise, lived experience, and perspectives that reflect the communities they serve so that they can make the right decisions, manage risks, and sustain impact. Recruiting and retaining the right trustees has never been more important.

Building a strong and effective board is possible - there are some great boards out there to prove it. However, the national picture is worrying, with many charities finding it hard to recruit. 

According to recent research:

• four out of five charities have a board vacancy
• over 60% have had that vacancy for over 6 months 

Recent Charity Commission research shows that:

• only 4% of trustees are under 40
• only 8% are from ethnic minorities

This lack of diversity is driven by the fact that most charities still recruit only through their own networks: only one in seventeen trustees found their role via an advert. Even those who recruit openly often do not recruit well. 

Charities need support to recruit effectively and to reach a wider network of prospective trustees. 

How Reach helps

Trustee Recruitment Cycle

Our digital guide provides tools, tips and guidance to help charities recruit trustees and diversify their boards.  

It supports boards to reflect on their strengths and gaps, to run an effective and inclusive process, and to set their new trustees up to flourish in their role. 

The cycle combines guidance, templates and insights from other charities, and weaves equity throughout. It has been designed so that charities can follow it step by step, or just access support and templates for the point that they are at. 

View the Trustee Recruitment Cycle

Trustee recruitment services

In 2025, charities recruited 1,387 trustees through our services. From new charities creating their first board to established boards seeking trustees with specialist expertise, we support charities of all sizes.

Access to candidates: we have a large, diverse community with over 16,000 volunteers signing up every year. Through our partnerships with LinkedIn, Escape the City, Rest Less and others, we share trustee roles with an even larger audience. 

Trustee search: with trustee recruitment, it helps to be proactive - to search out people who have relevant skills and interests and to ask them to consider your role. All of our services enable this.

Our ‘self service’ option is free for charities with a turnover of under £1m. We also offer an enhanced option with additional advertising and support.

Our TrusteeWorks service offers a full search service for charities and for Funder Plus programmes. 
 

Impact

In 2025, our services generated over 8,000 applications for trustee roles. The applicants had a wide range of expertise and also brought considerable diversity:

• Age: 42% were under 40 (compared to 4% of all trustees)
• Ethnicity: 45% were from ethnic minorities (compared to 8% of all trustees)

Explore more data about the characteristics of our volunteers in our interactive charts. 

During 2025, 1,387 trustees were appointed through our service. This included:

• 70 Chairs
• 164 Treasurers/finance trustees
• 32 trustees with Digital / IT expertise
• 84 trustees with HR expertise
• 47 trustees with Marketing and Communications expertise

We survey charities one year after they have appointed. In 2025, 91% said that their new trustee had made them more effective; 58%  said ‘significantly’ so. 

In their own words