Published on the Institute of Fundraising Blog (Scotland).
Diversity in the boardroom is certainly a hot topic at present; particularly gender-balance on boards is at the top of the agenda – rightly so. There is one other untapped source of talent; our Young Professionals. With the Charity Commission reporting that the average age of a trustee is 57, and with 67% of all trustees over 60, our boards are generally male, stale and grey.
Let’s not confuse the word ‘young’ with ‘youths’ – this would be a complete injustice to our young professionals. There are rules relating to legal capacity governed by legislation. You might be pleased to learn that we define a ‘young professional’ as anyone 56 or under. Are you in? If so, by getting on board, one of your contributions will be to reverse this trend. We use the word ‘professional’ as we recognise the unique skill sets that we all have and can be of value to a board.
To read more, go to: http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/blog/untapped-talent-you-and-our-young-professionals-as-trustees/