Pictured, left to right: Abi Calver, Gemma Croker and Chris Morecroft
I frequently meet or get contacted by talented, smart, digitally savvy women who want to become trustees. At the same time, I often get asked by charities if I know anyone who is looking for a digital trustee role. I am so frustrated by the fact that these talented candidates and great charities aren’t talking to each other directly. The fact that I am having these separate conversations suggests that more must be done to make being a trustee more accessible, more inclusive, and the recruitment process more transparent. It’s one of the reasons why we worked with CAST, SCVO and Reach Volunteering to develop a quick guide to finding a digital trustee.
As we all know, there is a digital skills gap on many boards and a lack of diversity. Last year, The Charity Digital Skills Report found that the majority of charities (69%) cited their board’s digital skills as low or having room for improvement, whilst a report by Inclusive Boards found that out of 6,300 trustees, only 34% were female. This needs to change.
I’ve decided to do something about this. I asked 3 women who contacted me recently about being digital trustees if I could feature them in a blog. I hope some fantastic charities will see them and realise that they would be perfect as their new digital trustee.
If you’re interested, please contact them directly via their social media accounts or the email addresses they have provided below. Just to be clear, we’re not acting as a recruiter here and this is simply another of our pro bono initiatives to help upskill charities in digital. If it gets a lot of interest we’d love to do it again in the future.
Here’s a bit more about Abi, Gemma and Chris:
Name: Abi Calver
What do you do? I’m the Client Strategy Manager for Fat Beehive – a leading third sector charity web design and development agency. My work encompasses a whole host of things but I specialise in helping charities and not for profits think about what success on their websites looks like, the tracking and reporting of these KPIs, conversion rate optimisation, A/B testing and SEO strategy. I believe in a data driven, pragmatic but creative approach to digital development.
Why do you want to be a digital trustee? I want to use my charity-specific skills and experiences to have a really deep impact within an organisation and see their online efforts flourish rather than stagnate.
I’m particularly interested in supporting international development and humanitarian charities and NGOs or those focused on advancing women and children’s rights and combating violence against women and children both in the UK & abroad.
How to contact me: Twitter @AbsCalver or via Abi’s LinkedIn profile
Name: Gemma Croker
What do you do? Social Media Manager, Cats Protection
Why do you want to be a digital trustee? So much incredible work is done by charities, I believe we would be significantly worse off without them. I’ve seen this first hand, having spent almost eight years working in digital comms for two of the UK’s biggest animal welfare charities. I’ve learnt so much from this experience and it’s time for me to give back. I’m passionate about animal welfare, the environment and equality & human rights so would love the opportunity to support these areas through digital.
How to contact me: Twitter @CrokerTweets or via Gemma’s LinkedIn profile.
Name: Chris Morecroft
What do you do? Interim DPO EU – Thomson Reuters & DPO for Family Action Charity (London)
Why do you want to be a digital trustee? With the pace of technology today it is vital that boards and trustees understand the impact to the organisation and day-to-day operations.
Boards/trustees should guide the organisation to ensure that they are ready to embrace this technology and harness it for the power that becoming a data driven organisation brings.
Data is the new currency, and how organisations collect, process, store and use data will be crucial in the next generation. Using data analytics to improve your decisions will be the differentiation in the market place and allow the organisation to become more agile.
This is particularly true in the third sector with charities. With every new generation comes a new way of thinking and acting on the collective thoughts. The younger generation no longer read random mailshots, read newspapers or sign up to monthly donations. They are moving in a fast paced society and if charities want to capture these “future” donors, they need to understand their world and move with them.
However, with all the opportunities that this new technology brings, there is also great responsibility, and boards and trustees should be the guardians of good governance over the digital footprint of the organisation holding the executive suite to account.
How to contact me: Via email on cemorecroft@gmail.com or via Chris’s LinkedIn profile
Good luck Abi, Gemma and Chris, we can’t wait to hear how your trustee search goes!