BRD Connects

Recognising the barriers and challenges for Black and Asian individuals in applying successfully for trusteeships, we set up and have developed an online peer support network – BRD Connects- specifically for aspiring and current Black and Asian trustees. This network now has well over 600 members. If you are aware of Black and Asian aspiring and current trustees, please encourage them to sign up to this peer support network here.

We offer organisations the opportunity to post their trustee vacancies to BRD Connects. It’s very important to us that organisations seeking to post trustee vacancies on to our social media network must ensure that the language of the advert is inclusive and that the advert is specific in highlighting that the organisation is keen to diversify its board and attract Black and Asian candidates with the skills and experience which the organisation is seeking.

The deadline given for applications must also be long enough to allow candidates new to trusteeship enough time to put in a good quality application and organisations to engage properly with potential applications. We suggest a minimum of 6 weeks. We are also happy to share the vacancy advert on our LinkedIn accounts, as required.
As with the BANOs database, we charge a small fee towards our ongoing costs.

We are also partnering with the recruitment consultancy, Eastside People, on an initiative, Action not Words, to provide one to one support such as mentoring and interview coaching to aspiring trustees on BRD Connects.

Our latest initiative Pathways to Trusteeship aims to raise awareness of trusteeship and its benefits to a future, younger generation of trustees. We’ve launched a trustee shadowing pilot for a small group of young people under this groundbreaking initiative.