Many professionals considering a charity trustee role focus immediately on how to get one. The networking, the search firms, the applications.
Our experience with our clients suggests a prior step: honest reflection on whether the role—and the charity—is right for you.
The reality is that professional experience, however distinguished, must be reshaped for a mission-driven context. Financial discipline applied to charitable priorities looks different from commercial oversight. Governance for organisations where impact matters more than returns requires a different mindset. Without that adaptation, as Craig Coben observed recently in the Financial Times, the experience risks becoming “a diminished version of your former job.”
We have published a short guide exploring this challenge. It covers the expectations gap between candidates and charities, the harder question about what you are really seeking, and three questions worth asking before committing.
If this resonates with you, you will find it on our Resources page. And if you would like to discuss your own thinking, contact George Wilkinson on 07875 570 365 or george@careermilestones.com