Being a great trustee
Being a great trustee is our open learning programme designed for charity trustees - for those new to the role or wanting a refresher - and people who are thinking about being a trustee. On the programme we explore the legal duties of a charity trustee and the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to be a great trustee.
If you’d like us to run this for your charity trustees, for charity trustees in your network or collaborations, or for your employees to support them to volunteer as trustees, let’s have a conversation.
The programme is six hours of content, which we can run online or in person. The online programme runs over four weeks with three two-hour workshops and self-directed learning tasks, and is described below. The in person programme can be designed around your needs.
We believe being a charity trustee
is a leadership role
means joining a team of trustees and joining a bigger team of everyone working and volunteering for your charity
is not just about stewardship and scrutiny, it is also about supporting staff and volunteers to be their best at work
This means we talk about leadership practices, team work and bringing out the best in others on our programme.
The programme
Week 1
Workshop 1: setting the scene
We introduce the programme, our approach and the Great trusteeship competency framework; set the scene about charities; meet and get to know each other; and, a have first look at trustee duties.
Week 2
Workshop 2: doing and knowing
We explore the six trustee duties in depth; learn what you need to do and know; understand what is a shared and an individual responsibility; and set tasks for week 3’s self-directed learning.
Week 3
Self-directed learning: skills
We complete a knowledge checklist and skills self-assessment as part of growing your trusteeship practice and planning your ongoing learning.
Week 4
Workshop 3: being
We explore trustee behaviours including what’s important, what’s hard to get right and how we might overcome what gets in the way; and bring it all together in your trustee development plan.
Our approach
How you’ll learn
We use a mix of short presentations, group work and individual exercises in the workshops and self-directed learning.
We aim to make the sessions engaging and interactive so you learn from each other as well as from us as a learning community. We work together to deepen understanding and model best practice.
Join a learning community
We know learning is a collective experience as well as an individual one. We encourage each cohort to share contact details, build relationships, and support and learn from each other while on the programme and after.
We encourage each group to join Trustees Together, the network and community of practice we host, to continue learning, deepen your trusteeship practice and for peer support.
Trusteeship as a practice
We believe trusteeship is a practice. To us, this means trusteeship is open to everyone, we learn by doing and, as it’s a continuous process, you’ll never stop learning and will get better at it over time.
It also means you’re not on your own. It’s a collaborative and shared activity where you learn and grow with the other trustees in your charity, and also come together in a community of practice to share what you do and learn from each other to build up our individual practice and that of the group.
We've developed a number of tools and resources to help trustees learn about, reflect on and be great trustees and to help charities learn about, reflect on and have great governance. These include our Hand of governance, Great trusteeship competency framework, and Foundations of great governance. We'll share these with you on the programme.
Our tools and resources follow current guidance and best practice including the Charity Commission’s The essential trustee, the Charity governance code for smaller or larger charities, and the ICSA Trustee competency matrix.
Yes We Can Great trusteeship competency framework: Knowledge, skills, behaviour
Great trusteeship competency framework
We share the competency framework with all learners to support your development as a trustee. You can also use the competency framework to improve governance practice within your charity. The framework includes
accessible summaries of the knowledge, skills and duties required to be a great trustee
summary of behaviours of a great trustee
checklists of what to read to learn about your charity and about being a good trustee
knowledge checklist tool
in-depth skills self-assessment tool
trustee development plan template