Join us as a Trustee - Faith For The Climate

Could you be a Trustee for Faith for the Climate?

We are seeking new trustees to join our Board and help our charity achieve its goals and aspirations.

Faith for the Climate exists to encourage, inspire and equip faith communities in their work on the climate crisis.
People of faith see our planet as a gift, and believe we have a sacred responsibility to show solidarity and support for those who have done the least to cause climate change but are suffering its worst impacts.
Many of our faiths and belief systems also share a Golden Rule: treat others as you wish to be treated.
Faith communities have a unique and precious role to play – in our thought, speech, worship and action, alongside and in partnership with secular environmental organisations – enabling people of faith to live out their calling by acting to protect the climate.

We are seeking candidates who can help our charity and staff to achieve the goals and objectives of Faith for the Climate. We are particularly keen to bring to our Board those who have experience in climate justice and/or working with different faith traditions to achieve a common goal. We are looking for people with financial skills, and for a new Secretary who could oversee the governance of FFTC.

Responsibilities

Our trustees must act in the interests of the charity at all times. As a member of the Board each trustee is required to carry out the duties and responsibilities of a trustee as defined in the Articles and Law and act in accordance with the Trustees Code of Conduct, Nolan Principles, policies, procedures and operational structure approved by the Board. The Board has collective responsibility to ensure that the purpose of the Board is fulfilled and each trustee is personally accountable. (For a more comprehensive description of the role of a trustee, you can download our document here.)

Trustees

The statutory duties of a trustee are:

To ensure the organisation complies with its trust deed, constitution, or articles of association.
To ensure that the organisation pursues its objectives as defined in its trust deed.
To ensure the organisation applies its resources exclusively in pursuance of its objectives – the charity must not spend money on activities which are not included in its own objectives, no matter how ‘charitable’ and ‘worthwhile’ those activities are.
To contribute actively to the Board of Trustees’ role in giving firm strategic direction to the organisation, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against agreed targets.
To safeguard the good name and values of the organisation.
To ensure the effective and efficient administration of the organisation.
To ensure the financial stability of the organisation.

Remuneration The role of Trustee is not accompanied by any financial remuneration, although expenses for travel may be claimed.

Location St John’s Church, Waterloo Road, SE1 8TY and online

Time commitment: At least 4 Board meetings per year, two in person and two online

Reporting to Board of Trustees

Duties:

To ensure that the charity has a clear vision, mission and strategic direction and is focused on achieving these.
To be responsible for the performance of the charity and for its ‘corporate’ behaviour; ensuring that the charity complies with all legal and regulatory requirements.
To act as guardians of the charity’s assets, both tangible and intangible, taking all due care over their security, deployment and proper application.
To ensure that the charity’s governance is of the highest possible standard.
To ensure the proper investment of the organisation’s funds.
With the other trustees to hold the charity ‘in trust’ for current and future beneficiaries.

As well as the various statutory duties, any trustee should make full use of any specific skills, knowledge or experience to help the board make good decisions.

The above list of duties is indicative only and not exhaustive. The Trustee will be expected to perform all such additional duties as are reasonably commensurate with the role.

Apply for the role

If this role is of interest to you, kindly reach out to Canon Giles Goddard (giles@stjohnswaterloo.org) for an initial chat. Following that, potential applicants are asked to submit a CV which will be reviewed by the Board against the skills needed and the range of perspectives covered in the Board.

Chosen applicants will be then invited for an interview by at least two Board members. On the basis of these processes, a new candidate will then be appointed directly by the or by an ordinary resolution of the members as defined in the Articles.