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What does being a trustee of Abney Park Trust involve?

Trustees are responsible for managing the charity and meeting the high standards that the Charity Commission sets.

At trustee meetings you will play a central part in the decision making for the charity, working as a team to set the charity’s strategic direction, ensuring compliance and the proper financial management of the charity’s affairs. Trustee meetings usually take place on a Wednesday evening, every second month, sometimes on line and sometimes in person.

The Charity Commission has produced a series of 5 minute guides about being a trustee. If you become a trustee, we’ll ask you to read these. But if you want to know more in advance, you can read them here: 5-minute guides for charity trustees.

Because we are a small charity, our trustees also have a pivotal role in the day to day operation of the charity. You may also find yourself opening up the beautifully restored Chapel on a Sunday morning to welcome people into this wonderful space, writing a grant application for a project, checking tickets or running the bar at a Jazz event, stewarding a bat walk around the cemetery after dark, meeting with the parks team from Hackney or liaising with a trumpeter for our Remembrance Day service.

Being a trustee of Abney Park Trust is a varied, rewarding and occasionally challenging role. It’s a role for people who like the idea of the double opportunity of being a trustee of a charity and playing an active role in a community events organisation.

What skills/experience is needed?

It isn’t necessary to have been a charity trustee before.

We welcome applications from everyone who lives close enough to Abney to attend meeting and events.

We particularly welcome applications from all faith groups and black and global majority candidates. We would also be very interested in applications from people aged 18-25.

To be effective, we need a broad range of skills to support the charity. We are looking for trustees who have the following experience:

· Income generation: we’d love to hear from people who have experience finding grant makers that fund small charities and grant writing; and from people who know how to secure support and sponsorship from commercial partners; we would like to appoint a trustee who is can lead a small group of trustees on the planning and implementation of a new income generation strategy

· IT skills: we want to extend how our website and other digital resources can be better managed and made available to communicate and celebrate Abney’s history, architecture and ecology.

· Ecology: Abney was Hackney first local nature reserve and a site of importance for nature conservation (SINC). It’s delicate balance is under threat from climate change and increasing use and we need greater ecology experience among our trustees to support our work in this area.

We would also love to hear from anyone who has a passion for putting on community events.