We are looking for as many responses from young people and organisations as possible to feed into this process, so that our approach moving forward is informed by the voices of young people, and the experience of charitable organisations and recruitment agencies in using our website.

We have put together this blog so that you can learn more about this process and the motivations and values that drive it.

You can input into this by filling out our survey (deadline to complete: 10am on Monday 24th April), or by signing up to attend our focus group on Thursday 20th April at 12-1pm.

We want to ensure that young people are able to access trusteeship and board member opportunities that are supportive of young trustees, and are relevant and appropriate for young people. This would allow young trustees to be supported to flourish and empowered to thrive in trusteeship and board member opportunities. We have heard feedback that some opportunities that have been advertised through the Young Trustees Movement platform in the past do not necessarily reflect the values of the movement, or provide the necessary support and environment for young people to succeed as trustees. We have also heard anecdotally that some young people are being excluded from opportunities that are requesting inappropriate stipulations from applicants.

We are therefore seeking to understand how we can better ensure opportunities are accessible and appropriate for young people. At present, the only statement we request for an organisation to agree to in order to post an opportunity on the website is that ‘we are only able to share opportunities when reasonable expenses are able to be covered, in line with our policies on accessibility and inclusion.’

We want to expand this statement to be more reflective of the values of the Young Trustees Movement in their entirety, and would like to hear your views on our approach.This part of the consultation is all about safeguarding young people, so we are looking at whether promoting any opportunity that comes through the request portal is the right approach, or whether we should be more transparent about the experience and support young people should expect from organisations when they are advertising on our website. If you have views on this, and its impact on your experience of using the opportunity posting and finder service, we would love to hear from you.

Running a platform for organisations to post trusteeship and board member opportunities that young people can apply to is an incredibly valuable space in a sector where young people sometimes don’t feel empowered to apply for opportunities, and where small organisations can struggle to recruit trustees from a wide and diverse pool of candidates. However, it does cost money to facilitate this platform, due to the infrastructure and staffing costs required to maintain and update the opportunities.

We want to develop our approach to safeguard the sustainability of the Young Trustees Movement, whilst also maintaining our commitment to never charge young people for this service, and not to price out small organisations who would not have the budget to advertise in this way usually.

We are therefore proposing the introduction of a variable fee for organisations to post their trusteeship and board member opportunities on the Young Trustees Movement website, with the service remaining free for small organisations. We are hoping that the introduction of a fee will lead to a better quality of service for all organisations, ensure that organisations are using the service with meaningful intention to recruit young trustees and advertise opportunities suitable for young people, and identify ways of working in partnership with  recruiters from using the service.

The introduction of this fee also adds to the first aim of ensuring that all opportunities on the Young Trustees Movement website are appropriate, allowing young people to feel confident in using the platform and ensuring the Young Trustees Movement remains the go to destination for young people looking for a trustee role. We also feel that this proposal can help ensure that the Young Trustees Movement is sustainable and can continue offering training, resources and leadership in the sector, as well as ensure that organisations are not prevented from advertising their opportunities by ensuring there is a fair fee structure for organisations.

This part of the consultation is all about safeguarding the Young Trustees Movement, so that we can continue to offer and expand the service. If you have views on this, and its impact on your experience of using the opportunity posting and finder service, we would love to hear from you.

We believe in transparency and accountability, and feel that a new approach should be agreed through conversation with all users of the service, and communicated clearly so all organisations and young people understand how the website posting service will work.

You can input into this consultation by filling out our survey (deadline to complete: 10am on Monday 24th April), or by signing up to attend our focus group on Thursday 20th April at 12-1pm. If you have any further questions or comments, please email hello@youngtrusteesmovement.org with the subject ‘Website Posting’.

We are really appreciative of each and every view you may have on this topic that could help shape our approach moving forward, and look forward to hearing from you!