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Where there are shadows, there is light
How Board Shadowing Schemes could help to increase diversity in charity governance
GOVERNANCE
Sufina Ahmad
Director, John Ellerman Foundation
Sufina Ahmad
Director, John Ellerman Foundation
Issue 79 | September 2025
Diversity data for charity boards shows that the majority of Trustees tend to be white, male, older and recruited into their roles informally. Disappointingly, the data also shows that when diverse candidates do apply, they are less likely to be appointed. The progress on diversifying our boards feels painstakingly slow, despite the evidence that organisations committed to diversity, equity and inclusion are more transparent, accountable and effective.
As someone who currently sits on three charity boards and is director of a grant-making charity, I see the vast benefits that diversity of experience and perspective brings to boards. I also know that if we are to make lasting progress in tackling the toughest charitable causes, then we need to commit to changing how we think and work at a board level. And fast. So what can be done to pick up the pace?
Board shadowing
One option is a Board Shadowing Scheme. In 2024, John Ellerman Foundation delivered our inaugural Board Shadowing Scheme. The scheme supported three people from diverse backgrounds with lived experience of poverty to participate in our governance processes for six months, as active observers and contributors (i.e. without the ability to vote on decisions). We had the following three core aims for the Board Shadowing Scheme:
- Provide new perspectives and a positive learning experience for our board, especially since we have limited levels of change at a trustee level.
- Support the diversification of trustee boards within charities, especially the trust and foundations sector – with statistical data from the Association of Charitable Foundations, Reach Volunteering, Getting On Board, Young Trustees Movement and Action for Trustee Racial Diversity showing a lack of diversity on charity boards.
- Offer board experience to individuals who may not ordinarily consider trustee roles.
We appointed three board shadowing trustees, who had experience of working in and running small and medium charities, delivering work relating to the arts, environment and health and wellbeing. They each had their own reasons for considering the scheme, including wanting to learn more about governance processes and applying this learning in their own organisations and work lives, as well as wanting to use this opportunity as a way of determining in a lower stakes way if they could be a meaningful part of charity governance systems and processes.
“The scheme supported three people from diverse backgrounds with lived experience of poverty to participate in our governance processes for six months, as active observers and contributors.”
What was achieved?
We conducted a learning review of the scheme, which found that the three aims of the scheme were very much met, with there being good experiences for all involved. Shadowing trustees were able to fulfil their own hopes and goals for the scheme too, and they were unanimous in their view that they learned more about what it means to be a trustee generally and specifically in the context of John Ellerman Foundation.
The structure of the scheme was commended too. In brief, it comprised an induction, attendance at all governance-related meetings, group meetings to prepare for board and committee meetings, monthly one-to-one meetings between shadowing trustees and the director, and a £500 personal development budget. The processes were appreciated for their simplicity, flexibility and for being trust-based.
Lessons to share
Future schemes will need improvements, including the way in which the scheme is concluded for each cohort. We will also ensure the activities within the scheme are led by trustees, and that more work is done to ensure the ways in which the shadowing trustees connect with each other and with the organisation’s trustees is as equitable as possible. Further work is needed on access and inclusion too, for example, by considering different formats and ways of conveying information for shadowing trustees who may be less familiar with large packs of written material.
Running Board Shadowing Schemes presents an opportunity for us to imagine charity governance differently. It provides a model that supports all trustees to bring their whole selves, in terms of their experiences and their expertise, to their roles, should they wish. It enables more critical reflection too, on what is working and what could be enhanced within governance processes.
