I was in London yesterday for a NCVO Trustee Conference and one of the hot topics under discussion was whether trustees should be paid.
Trustees, like myself as vice chair of Headway Cambridgeshire, do this work voluntarily. But Craig Dearden-Philips, founder of the charity SpeakingUp, believes they should be paid to encourage younger members with specific skills which could benefit the organisation.
Baroness Julia Neuberger, who was appointed by Gordon Brown to champion volunteering, disagreed. She felt it would no longer be deemed as voluntary work – which people do for that reason, to give their time, energy, commitment and skills because they want to give something back to society without financial remuneration.
She said some companies were allowing staff to do voluntary work in their work time – but admitted that the worst example was being set by the Department of Health which on the one hand wants a strategy implemented for volunteering, but does not lead by example.
I met a doctor at the conference, a consultant psychiatrist, Dr Olusina Alakija, who works for a private hospital and started a charity offering support for BEM children in London. He told me he is allowed to spend one day a week – and fully paid – to do his voluntary work.
Do you believe more organisations should give staff time off work to do this? And should trustees be paid? During our cash strapped time, I think it will be hard for bosses to give their staff time off for voluntary work.
But I agree with the Baroness that trustees should do their work voluntarily as that is the spirit in which it is intended to be done. Trustees who do their job well will get something back too which is priceless – the satisfaction of knowing that you are genuinely doing something to make a difference for the benefit of others.
Trustees should be objective and therefore not paid by the trust
A tricky one Ellee but I don’t think they should be paid either.
I wonder if trustees could be given tax perks. It would be an additional incentive.
Good Morning, Ellee: I have to agree with you. On any board I served on, we simply never expected to be paid. We were non-profit organizations who were empowered to handle monies others donated to keep us going. The perk for us was “serving”. lol! 🙂
It’s worth remembering that they don’t have to do it.
I don’t think that trustees or anyone else who do this kind of voluntary work should be paid, as that automatically reduces their independence.
However, companies should encourage their employees to take on roles through a highly-publicised CSR programme and time off work to do these activities. My employer gives me half a day every month to do voluntary work in, and has a large number of internal opportunities that they promote as well. I use my half-day to help me plan, set up, or keep up-to-date with my role as a Scout Leader.
It’s not an easy question to answer as there are many facets to the situation. Naturally people should be reimbursed fairly for their expenses, reasonable ones that is. What can be a problem for some is when a consultant has to be hired for his/her expertise and others who are volunteers are not paid but give just as valuable input because that is their field.
I think it has to be a pretty big firm who can allow its workers time to volunteer but many might see it as very good PR anyway.
I don’t think trustees should be paid for many reasons – loss of independance, prospect of attracting people who do it for the “wrong” reasons etc.
But people should definitely be enabled and encouraged to do it – time off, essential expenses, respect and appreciation.
I am amazed by the amount that you do, Ellee. I am still convinced there are really two of you and that one day you’ll be caught out when you both mistakenly turn up at the same place at the same time!
You’ve long been a supporter of voluntary work and I’m connected with some over my way too. It comes down quite often to time allocation and transportation – lucky if both are on the positive side of the ledger.
I agree with the rest: no payment for trustees! And I wish we could go back to the days when county/ borough councillors weren’t paid either (except minimal expenses), as their calibre has definitely declined. people should do these things because they want to serve, not because they want to top-up their income or advance their paid career.
It sounds likes its a no-hoper then. Thanks for sharing your views.
And yes, Reluctant Blogger, I am learning the art of delegating which I quite enjoy so I can multi-task.
six of one and half a dozen of the other
it is nice for people to volunteer
it is nice for wealthy people to do charity work and fundrausing
it is not so nice for wealthy people to be paid shed loads of money for charuty work
however I can see that if charity work involves fund raising, then perhaps people should be rewarded according to their fundraising gift, skills or abilities.
There are many charities who already employ highly paid staff
and you can bet banks bailed out charitably by Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the tax payer, will still reward handsomely those failed fat cats with golden hanshakes.
I despair!
This is just one more twist to make every human activity the subject of a financial transaction [and therefore taxable] and to keep the illusion of perpetual economic growth alive. It is women who have borne the brunt of this over the last 50 years. They’ve been squeezed to death and there is no more juice to extract. So, let’s clobber the volunteer. Next they’ll want grandparents who babysit to get paid or the mate who’ll fix yer washing machine as a favour in return for you fixing his leaky tap.
This is desperation politics/economics to keep a failing system alive, a system that favours those who are trying to keep it alive.
Where will it end?