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I have only had one Chair in my time as Chief Exec of Global Action Plan – the formidable Jeremy Oppenheim – Managing Partner of “boutique” 300+ person sustainability consultancy SystemIQ.

Jeremy was responsible for talking me into being Chief Exec, challenging my imposter niggles and giving me the confidence to lead in my own way. Jeremy’s championing of our Exec team was envied deeply by my Charity peers, an approach not to be taken for granted.

Recruiter friends tell me the Charity Chair it is one of the hardest roles to fill – a big ask and responsibility - but an incredible opportunity to have huge impact on the world in a relatively small amount of time. 

So what does it take to be an excellent Charity Chair?   

There are many things I have deeply appreciated about Jeremy’s approach to the role. His capacity for zooming out of a topic to help us think laterally was invaluable as was his ambition for us to change things bigger and faster. He was also – admittedly – the first to derail a meticulously planned agenda. 

So what are the musts for anyone considering taking on a rewarding but challenging Charity Chair role?  

Ambition – "I love it, how could you make it 50% bigger?"  

As a charity exec team even your most ambitious thinking is against a context of what you are currently managing, and let's be blunt - in the third sector - this is often one of scarcity. When you've come out of a week of being one of 800 unsuccessful applicants for a £20k funding pot, learned that your biggest corporate partner has 'pivoted' from climate change to football, and then had your staff team tell you they want a four-day working week, even an incremental step can seem like a big one! So, whilst we groaned every time Jeremy challenged us to think bigger, it is much needed. 

Having a Chair with independent ambition for your Charity's cause - not just support for your plan - is really critical. At the end of the day, the charity is serving the mission and not itself and so a go-big-or-go-home attitude helps to challenge a natural survival instinct that hampers big thinking. Obviously a dose of realism is important; wild income targets against Individual Giving when you’ve only had one donor to date is not morale building – but the ambition to target new areas of funding or impact and giving support to plan for these is important. 

Focus – strategy, not the phone contract 

I say this with slight tongue-in-cheek because we ended up embroiled in a never-escape telecoms lease that did need Board time - BUT with this notable exception, one of the delights of our Board has been a solid focus on the prize – charity impact and not on the minutiae of running an office.  

For the 5% of UK charities generating over £1m per annum like us, a Chair's role should – I believe - be at arm’s length. 

As bigger charities we have teams of excellent, values-driven people who know their stuff. A good Chair understands the teams’ strengths and champions, challenges and supports them to be the best they can be, whether this is through helping the team to look at things from a different angle or through using their experience to coach team members to make things happen.  

This surely must also be one of the huge joys of being a Chair; knowing that you are supporting incredible change in the world without having to physically make it happen yourself. 

Culture – listening and amplifying 

We have a fantastic group of quite ego-less Trustees with very different skill sets, personalities, experiences and backgrounds – entrepreneurs, academics, campaigners, finance professionals, students and more. A Chair’s ability to create a culture where everyone feels comfortable to share their thoughts and for these to be valued, is critical. This means that a key Chair quality for me is in being curious, in wanting to hear from others and come to decisions together rather than to insert their own agenda.  

This is particularly important at Global Action Plan, because we have youth trustees often in their first official role – our Board spans 50 years in age. That said, we are yet to have a youth Trustee who has struggled to make themselves heard with Clover Hogan very much setting the precedent as our first. 

Creativity - big ideas on a shoestring 

As a 30 person charity, we dream of having dedicated PR people and in-house design teams. The reality is that a lot of people wear many hats – our Head of Ops is also our Digital Strategist, our Medical Specialist leads the ceilidh dancing at our awaydays and I (as CEO) am often drafted in to “get the other screen on Zoom” etc. We can turn on a pin and are excellent – by necessity - at using the smallest budget to make amazing things happen.  

This is often a tricky mindset for Trustees to adjust to, especially coming from a FTSE100 or large Foundation. If not understood, a Chair can risk putting a huge burden on Exec Teams with cumbersome reporting requirements and unrealistic expectations of corporate scale media responses etc.  

This isn’t limited to smaller charities – with the moral and often legal imperative to justify every penny entrusted in us, all charities and their Trustees have to be incredibly prudent with spending - an impact/resources analysis is key. So good Charity Chair needs to be prepared - and hopefully excited - by a brief of ‘What can we make happen by Friday with the people we’ve got in the room?’ 

Determination - championing diversity in a sector with little 

Diversity is a major issue for the environmental sector at large, we take the silver medal to Farming’s gold of the least ethnically diverse sector in the UK. We need more Chairs who can grasp first-hand the huge social and economic inequalities we must tackle.  

I was struck by the stark instruction of Lily Zheng in her book DEI deconstructed that no one should use their privilege or background as an excuse not to be a champion of change. Jeremy always made a point of hearing other voices in the room before lending his own. So my Board Chair “must have” is not necessarily a set of characteristics but, crucially, a mindset that charities must acknowledge and tackle the structural inequalities that exist for the communities they engage – and be thoughtful in how they are set up to best do this. 

Gumption – go on, do it. 

I am endlessly grateful for my incredible Trustees. Having a Board of intelligent, kind and passionate advisers motivated by the cause and not money or status is one of the huge perks of being CEO in the third sector. They keep me going in the tough times and stay reflective in the good. If you have not been a charity trustee before but are considering it, please just do it.  

And – if you are enraged by climate inaction, want to address the many injustices it causes today – not in 10 years - and promise not to ask me about the photocopier - then please do apply to our Board.  I am excited to see what the next stage on our journey brings. 

Applications for the Global Action Plan Board (both Chair and Trustee roles) close at 9am Friday 28 March.

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