I first became a Trustee of a charity 19 years ago for a London homeless organisation called Thames Reach. The charity provides a street rescue service with shelters and hostels across the city which work to get people out of homelessness. I joined because I thought it was an important issue that needed to be addressed and they were doing good work. I've had quite a few Trustee roles since.
Being a Trustee
It’s always the same motivation for me, that I care about what the charity is doing, and I think I can contribute and learn something. It’s about supporting the charity. Supporting and challenging the management, contributing whatever expertise you have, and making good collective decisions as a board. As well as acting as an ambassador for the charity. For example, I do some fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy UK, and I try to get people I know fundraising too.
Trustees need to ensure there’s good corporate governance in an organisation in line with the requirements of the Charity Commission and charity law. Ensuring the public’s money is safe and it’s used for the public benefit.
Advice about becoming a Trustee
If anybody’s thinking about becoming a Trustee, they should think about two things: what you can contribute to the charity and what you can get back from the experience. As a trustee you need to benefit from the experience.
It could be about contributing to the work of a cause that matters to you; or working with a really good team; or learning about an area you don’t already know about. Sometimes people think they don’t know enough, and they haven’t got the right level of experience, but it doesn’t matter. The experience you have will definitely make a difference.
Being a Trustee at Muscular Dystrophy UK
As a Trustee at Muscular Dystrophy UK, you need to understand how we can help people living with muscle wasting conditions. A lot of people, though not everyone, on our Board of Trustees have lived experience of one of the conditions. They're there because they're a parent; they have the condition; or they have a friend with the condition. We all try to contribute with our experiences.
I’m conscious I’m not just representing myotonic dystrophy as that is my personal experience, that’s not what it’s about. As a Trustee you’re representing over 60 muscle wasting and weakening conditions. It just means that with lived experience you’ll have some insights, but you do need to understand that peoples’ experiences are all different. You need to be open to listening to what it feels like and what the experience is like for other people. You need to keep your knowledge current, meeting key people in the charity and attending activities. I also sometimes attend Muscles Matter seminars.
On the board it feels like everybody contributes from their own expertise and experience and we listen to all those views to make good decisions. It’s a board that punches above its weight in terms of the quality of people on the board, and as many people have a connection to the work, they are very dedicated.
Looking ahead
I’m really excited about the developments and recent progress in treatments for SMA and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. I’m also looking forward to seeing us continually increase knowledge and understanding of muscular dystrophy conditions to the public. For people to know who we are and what we stand for, so we can really broaden our impact.