Could you become a charity trustee?

 

At Pimp My Cause our expertise lies in connecting marketers and good causes for pro bono projects and over the last year we’ve expanded our activities to include matching up experienced marketers with charities in need of marketing-oriented trustees. 

Our partners at EMR Recruitment have joined us in this endeavour and we’ll be co-hosting our third charity trustee matchmaking event with them on Oct 1st in London. If you’re interested in attending please get in touch early, as our first two events were fully booked with waiting lists.

We’ve learned from speaking to our members that many small charities find it difficult to recruit the board trustees they need to help their organisations grow. And our experienced marketing members have shown an interest in taking on trustee positions to use their expertise to support causes that are meaningful to them and to gain valuable board experience as a stepping stone towards paid non-executive directorships as well as roles of greater leadership in their primary organisations. To support our members we plan to continue to hold trustee matching events and to provide follow up matching support after the events.

As a first step in trustee matching we try to understand both the marketers’ and causes’ needs and goals to help to make the right connections. The two most critical factors for success are of course a shared passion for the cause’s mission and a compatibility between the marketer’s capabilities and the cause’s goals.

A great example of such a connection is Jeremy Laight, Global Director of Marketing for Crown Worldwide Group, and the National Youth Arts Trust (NYAT). 

Jeremy has a deep belief in purposeful marketing and has donated his expertise to several causes in the past. His current employer Crown Worldwide Group has a strong CSR initiative that actively encourages their employees to help good causes. So when Jeremy heard about our trustee matching events he was keen to get involved. 

We asked Jeremy to share with us what made NYAT the right cause for him:

 ‘As a devoted father, I have seen for myself how the performing arts can uniquely enrich, inspire and connect the lives of young people. But too often, talented and ambitious young people miss out on such opportunities because they lack financial support. It’s fantastic, through the NYAT, to be able to help overcome such barriers and give all young people opportunities to access the performing arts.

‘Like many small charities the biggest challenge for NYAT is how to maximise finite resources. This is where marketing expertise can really help create strategic focus around the organisation’s purpose, whilst powering up the impact of all communication and digital marketing activities. I really hope by becoming an active trustee to help give even more talented young people opportunities to learn, train and audition in all aspects of the arts, and, in the process, gain valuable additional board-level experience.’

NYAT speak very highly of Jeremy’s support. Joanna Kennedy, chair of their board said, ‘Jeremy has been a wonderful introduction to the board of NYAT. He is helping us to look at our communications in a much more structured way than previously and has brought energy and enthusiasm to our board discussions’.