How to engage and recruit Millennial trustees?

Of the 700,000 trustees in the UK, 2/3rds are male, with an average age of between 55–64, and 51% of those are retired, according to the Taken on Trust report, published by the Charity Commission in 2017. Sadly Millennials only account for 1.3% of trustees. Our sense is that broadly the position hasn’t changed significantly since the report, although of course some charities are excellent at engaging younger trustees and volunteers and the pandemic may also have had some effect on engagement across all ages. So how can charities recruit millennial trustees?

Millennials are those in the age range of 22 – 37, reaching young adulthood in the early 21st Century. As a millennial myself, I donate money to a number of charities on an ad hoc basis and like many, I support family and friends who fundraise via online giving platforms and appeals on social media. However, charities need to be asking us for more than our money.

At the centre of it all is emotion. We engage because we care and we believe in our responsibility to create change. I have always enjoyed volunteering and at present, I donate a lunch hour every 2 weeks as part of a reading scheme helping young children who need extra help learn to read. However, I have never been a trustee. Trusteeship is not something I had really considered before joining Stone King where I have seen first-hand the inspiring work done by so many dedicated trustees.

Millennials have a strong desire to give something back to society. However, there are a number of obstacles preventing engagement as volunteers and trustees. In order to start diversifying trustee boards, charities should:

• Ensure flexibility, particularly around volunteering opportunities and the timing of trustee meetings;
• Tell a story about the impact volunteers will have and advertise fun and challenging volunteer opportunities to encourage engagement. Some of the best trustees are volunteers who are already familiar with a charity’s work; and
• Adopt a more formal trustee recruitment process - an informal chat with people they already know is only going to replicate the current board.

Another way of attracting millennials into becoming trustees would be for charities to emphasise the support and mentoring opportunities that they can offer, as well as training, to ensure that people have the confidence to apply. This issue affects a wider group than just millennials, but it is important that potential trustees are not put off due to a lack of confidence when faced with the many duties that a trustee is expected to fulfil.

In short, small changes to how a charity advertises volunteering and trustee opportunities, more flexibility around the timing of meetings and showing how volunteers and trustees make a difference to your charity could have a significant, positive impact on engaging millennials and, importantly, outcomes for your beneficiaries.