Be one of our next Trustees

We're looking for you to help shape our future, and for you to spend some time with us, sharing our passion for the Marine Conservation Society to grow and be even more impactful.

Look in the mirror!

Right now, less than 3% of charity Trustees are under 30, 8% are people of colour and 36% are women. We're looking for people from across the UK and are keen to recruit trustees from all nations in the UK.

We value the many skills and experiences that you can bring to the Marine Conservation Society. We're committed to a Board culture that enables everyone to be their authentic selves and to enjoy the Trustee experience.

We believe that becoming a Trustee with us will be a rewarding journey for you – we want you to share your experience, your fresh perspectives, and we'll listen to your views.

We’re looking for people to join our Board with expertise in one or more of the following areas:

• Finance – you might be a qualified accountant and have a background in finance and audit so that you can provide vital skills to help the Board oversee our financial management. An understanding of charity accounts and regulations would absolutely be an advantage.
• Marketing & Communications – we want to reach new audiences to ensure a diverse and inclusive approach, and we are aiming to do that at scale. You may have experience of providing strategic support for increasing our reach and visibility.
• Marine Conservation - you might have environmental knowledge, ideally on the marine environment, with policy and/or practical experience of conservation. A network of contacts across the marine sector, particularly with business or government, would be an advantage.

What you can bring to our Board can be just as interesting as where you’ve been working. You do not need to have previous charity trustee experience, but you will need to be comfortable participating at a senior level with complex discussions and the need to be comfortable making pragmatic but key decisions.

Being a Trustee can be a challenge, but it’s also a brilliant opportunity for you to develop your skills, work as part of a team that shapes the direction of our charity in making tangible changes for the future of our ocean and planet. If you’re passionate about what we do, then you’ll feel the same excitement we have in making those changes happen.

You do not need to understand everything that we do or know the Latin names of fish, or in most cases, even to have experience of the charity sector. As a Trustee, you’ll develop your personal and professional knowledge, work on strategy and develop an approach to managing risk and broaden your influencing and negotiation skills in a new context.

You’ll also gain insight and knowledge from your fellow Trustees, with everyone’s skills being recognised and valued.

Trustees are volunteers, so the role is not paid, but we'll cover your costs for travelling and any overnight stays to attend meetings or events.

We value the knowledge and experiences that you'll bring to Marine Conservation Society, and they may have been developed in a range of ways, and by many routes.

We understand that the application process can be difficult if you have a condition or disability that you live with. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to shine during your application process, so please let us know what we can do to accommodate you.

We'll manage your application through our applicant tracking system which means the shortlisting process will be done without your personal information being included. The software can remove it from your CV but it’s more efficient if you do not include any personal information in any documents that you upload.

A sub-committee from our existing Trustees will consider your application and hold the first interviews. From there, the final shortlist will be invited to a second interview and if all parties are happy to go ahead, we'll invite you to observe a Board of Trustees meeting which will be in July.

Appointments will be confirmed in November with a letter from the Chair and then the final step will be to have this formalised at our Annual General Meeting which takes place in December.

Key dates

Closing date: 31 May 2024

1st Interviews: June 2024

2nd Interviews: End of June/Early July

If you have any questions, or need further information please contact:

Joanne O’Hagan
Head of HR & Facilities
[email protected]

Phone: 01989 566017 Ext 200