The Impact of Being a Trustee: More Than Just Meetings

People sometimes ask me why I became a trustee and how I find the time to do it alongside full-time work. The honest answer is this: In 2018, I spent much of the last few months of my grandpa’s life sorting through the piles of paperwork in his study. One of the things that struck me so poignantly was that charity had always been a central pillar in his life. After he lost his battle with dementia, I knew the best way to honour his life would be to carry on his commitment to charity in my own way. And so, my journey as a Trustee began.

Like many people, I had never really considered that I had the skills, experience, or time to be a Trustee or what being a Trustee might give back to me. It turns out I was wrong on every count. Four years later, I am Treasurer at We Hear You (WHY), and Chair of the Board of Trustees at Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS). Both incredible local charities, which I care passionately about, were chosen because of the enormous impact both life-threatening illness and sexual violence have on society and personally on those I love.

WHY celebrates its 30^th Birthday this year, and from its humble origins as a second phone line in our founder’s kitchen for women with breast cancer, they support anyone impacted by a life-threatening condition across BANES, Somerset & Wiltshire. The latest studies show that 1 in 2 of us will have cancer in our lifetime, so the number of people who need our services sadly continues to grow. SARSAS was also founded by just two women, a phone line and some volunteers back in 2008, and now supports around 800 people each year affected by sexual violence at any time in their lives. With sexual violence impacting around 1 in 4 women in our lifetimes, the work SARSAS does not only around supporting victim-survivors but also around training and education is crucial to see a step change in this area.

The last few years have shown me that being a Trustee is both challenging and incredibly rewarding, and I have consciously made an effort to prioritise it. The role of a Trustee to govern and guide a charity is fundamental, they quite literally cannot operate without them, yet as entirely voluntary roles, the absence of good, committed Trustees is crippling. Our boards require diverse skills, drawing on both sector experience and a range of professional skills such as finance, HR, legal, risk management, fundraising, and project management.

I never like to pass up the opportunity to tell people about the amazing work of both WHY and SARSAS and the hundreds of people across Bristol, BANES, and Wiltshire they help each year. (I would encourage anyone passionate about those areas to look them up.) But what really matters is that people find a cause they themselves are passionate about and offer whatever they can to support that cause.

Personally, being able to support our incredible staff at both WHY and SARSAS is the most rewarding thing I do, and the range of skills I have now is much broader than when I started. I now understand areas of therapeutic practice, risk, HR, governance, data protection and safeguarding – all well beyond my profession as a chartered accountant. I am so proud that, in some small way, I am a part of these incredible organisations, supporting people in some of their toughest moments. I can’t pretend that I am directly helping our client base, but I do know that doing my job well enables our staff to do that more effectively. Yes, charities will always need our money, but they also need your skills and your time. Being able to give that really is the ultimate gift.

As featured in Celebrate: Trowbridge Community Paper (Issue 12 /June 2024)

If you are interested in becoming a SARSAS trustee, you can find out more information here or contact us at recruitment@sarsas.org.uk