Change-focused trustee for SAFE-horses

Do you have enthusiasm and skills for driving change? Could you bring that to our animal-protection charity that wants to move forward to cope with demand?

About Us

Saving Abandoned Fly-grazing Equines (SAFE) is a small Wokingham-based charity that helps rescue and place abandoned horses. Established in 2014, SAFE are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in need of more trustees.

Our expenditure is £75k p.a.; with our income hit by the current pandemic (as many other charities), we need to plan our strategy to better include fundraising and marketing of our in-demand service. We also want to improve the governance of our charity.

About SAFE’s mission and work

Information from the Charity Commission about SAFE

The role

Our existing three trustees are welcoming of new ideas and want new support to increase the size and skills of our Board. We’re obviously a charity, not a business, but we want you to help us apply good business principles in governing our organisation.

We will particularly welcome potential trustees with change management and business transformation skills and ideas. Ideally, we are looking for trustees to bring your understanding of good practice in any one or more of these areas:

Income generation & fundraising
Marketing, promotion and campaigning about our service;
using social media and digital platforms for marketing & campaigning
Governance, particularly of non-profit organisations

Of course, we welcome potential trustees with ideas and expertise from a variety of backgrounds, including but not exclusively from the business world. We want to expand the diversity of our board, in all meanings of the term.

Interest in conservation, environmental causes, animal welfare, etc., might be beneficial, but potential applicants do not need in-depth understanding of, or involvement in, our operational cause (horse rescue); you do need to grasp governance, change management and strategic planning, with diplomacy in your interaction with existing trustees and operational volunteers being vital.

The focus of a trustee role is strategic, and trustees will not be expected to get involved in the organisation’s operations on a day-to-day basis; however, regular contact and liaison with other trustees and volunteers is expected.

We ask for about ten hours per month, which includes all meetings, correspondence, communication, etc. The Board currently meets online monthly for 1½ hours.

Full induction to our charity is provided, plus specialist support as a trustee including access to external training. You do not need extensive experience of charity trusteeship, as support from other trustees and from our local charity-support organisation is always available.

What do you get as a volunteer trustee with our organisation?

An opportunity to exercise your strategic & planning skills in one or more of those areas shown, possibly in a different environment or context
A chance to expand and implement your understanding of an environmental charity and how we will need to become more robust in the near-term and for the future
A chance to augment your experience of charities
A boost to your career and CV, if needed
Satisfaction of helping an organisation that supports animal welfare and landowners, thus giving something back to your community
Induction training from us; training, support and assistance from our local support & advice agency

What do we get?

Your skills, knowledge, understanding or experience, ideally in one of those areas with which we most need assistance: income generation, marketing, and governance – we don’t expect one person to have all of those, though!
Your abilities to influence plans for our charity’s future
Enhancement to our overall governance and the Board of trustees; improvement in our charity governance and operational growth
Your participation in our collective decision-making, contributing to all areas of our charity work
Your enthusiasm

What do our beneficiaries get?

The ability to continue our support for local landowners and the public in rescuing and rehoming horses
A well-governed charity, sustainable for the future
A forward-looking and agile organisation, with a well-informed and well-managed Board of trustees

How to apply

This appointment is being managed for us by inVOLve Community Services, a charity-support organisation, who offer a no-obligation discussion by phone or video. A detailed Role Description and Person Specification can be made available to you upon request.

You will need to be eligible to be a charity trustee, which we will explain. Trustee appointments are subject to satisfactory references.

Your CV or similar will be read by SAFE’s trustees and an interview by video offered as soon as mutually convenient.

I need to know more

Contact Mike Allen intrusted@involve.community for more information and arrange to have a no-obligation initial informal discussion (phone, WhatsApp, Teams, Zoom, Meet, etc.)

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SAFE horses – Trustee to drive change

SAFE horses – Trustee to drive change

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