Trustee - Strategic Business - Volunteer

We are seeking a trustee with strategy or business experience to help Embracing Age, a volunteer‑led befriending charity, grow sustainably. You will bring commercial thinking and fresh challenge to a committed board at an exciting stage in our development.

We need people who have done it before in other contexts and who know what strategic good practice looks like. With you on our board, we will be better equipped to make decisions that are well considered. You will help us see around corners, spot risks we might otherwise miss, and hold ourselves to a higher standard of strategic thinking, which ultimately benefits the older people we serve.

We are also committed to building a board that reflects a wider range of backgrounds and perspectives. Diverse thinking leads to better decisions, and if you bring both strategic experience and a perspective that is currently missing from our table, that combination is exciting to us.

Our board of trustees is small but committed. We are growing our befriending model across Richmond‑upon‑Thames, Hampshire, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight, and we are thinking carefully about how to sustain and scale that growth in a way that remains true to who we are.

• Help the organisation think clearly about direction, sustainability, and how to make the most of opportunities.
• Support long‑term planning and decision making under pressure.
• Attend board meetings online four times a year and an annual strategy away day in person.
• Optionally get involved in additional areas, such as funding strategy or new work, between meetings.

There are no formal sub‑committee responsibilities attached to this role stees who want to get more involved between meetings are very welcome to do so.

• Practising Christian, comfortable with and committed to our faith; we pray together at board meetings.
• Genuine experience at a strategic or senior business level—senior leader, management consultant, or someone who has led significant organisational change or growth.
• Track record of helping organisations grow, diversify, or navigate change successfully.
• Ability to read financial accounts and organisational performance data and ask relevant questions.
• Experience of strategic planning or business development, ideally in a values‑led context.
• Understanding of risk and how to balance opportunity with organisational resilience.
• Confidence to constructively challenge and wisdom to know when to support or push back.
• Willingness to work collaboratively as part of a small team and prepare thoroughly for meetings.
• Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• No requirement to have worked in the charity sector before; fresh perspective is welcome.

We warmly encourage applications from people from Black and Asian communities, younger adults, and anyone who feels their voice is not typically heard in charity boardrooms. We use positive action in our recruitment, prioritising under‑represented communities when candidates are equally suitable.

Hybrid (works both in‑person and remote).