Volunteer SWIDN Trustee

What will you be doing?

SWIDN have over 120 members and a wider community of 5000 people working in the international development sector in the UK’s South West and beyond. This year, we’ve launched an exciting new strategy and secured three years of funding from the UK Government. We are looking for three new trustees to join our Board for this next phase of our work, to be appointed in early 2025.  SWIDN are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation. We want to increase the diversity of our leadership and particularly welcome applications from people with lived experience from a country considered as ‘lower or middle income’, people identifying as from the Global Majority, from LGBTQI+ communities, people living with disabilities, and people from diverse socioeconomic and education backgrounds.  We are particularly looking for new trustees with any one of the following experiences: 

Currently working for a SWIDN member organisation Understanding and experience of anti-racism from a governance perspective Understanding and experience of working with corporates Understanding and experience of digital and AI from a governance perspective

We don’t require applicants with previous trustee experience, applicants with a specific education level or experience of management or leadership. SWIDN work flexibly within our whole team capacity and not all trustees are expected to give the same time commitments.    What is expected from SWIDN Trustees? Each Trustee should have:

A commitment to our values An active curiosity to engage in the historical harms, current challenges, and future opportunities of ‘international development’ and global solidarity A commitment to SWIDN, the South West or the ‘international development’ sector in the UK A willingness to commit time, effort and resources to support SWIDN as a trustee Integrity, sound judgment, a willingness to reflect and learn, and to speak their mind An understanding of the legal duties, responsibilities and liabilities of trusteeship

In addition to the legal responsibilities of a charity trustee and those outlined above, we ask SWIDN Board members to attend quarterly online board meetings of 2 hours, including 1 in-person meeting in Bristol each year (March), to stay informed of the activities of the organisation, and to safeguard the good name and values of the organisation. 

What are we looking for?

We are particularly looking for new trustees with any one of the following experiences: 

Currently working for a SWIDN member organisation Understanding and experience of anti-racism from a governance perspective Understanding and experience of working with corporates Understanding and experience of digital and AI from a governance perspective

What difference will you make?

SWIDN are at an exciting place in our journey, with resources in place to launch the next stage of our growth and strategy. In the role of Trustee, you would have the opportunity to help shape this growth stage, engaging in innovative practices to support, transform and equip the international development sector in the South West. SWIDN estimate there are more than 500 registered charities of all sizes across the 6 counties of the South West. In your role as Trustee, you could have significant impact in engaging with these, playing a key role in supporting the impact they are having all over the world. You could also have a key impact on SWIDN's continued strength and resilience, on growing our finances to a place of sustainability and enhanced capacity, and on ensuring that our UK Government grant achieves maximum value for money and effectiveness in convening and supporting international civil society in the UK's South West. SWIDN are a micro charity with a part time team of two. We'd love to hear from you if you're interested in this role, through an application made up of a 2 page CV together with either a 1 page cover letter telling us why you're interested in this role in the description above, or the same in a short video if this is your preference to [email removed - click apply for more details]. Please don't send CVs of more than 2 pages.