Just a note for the UK boards: trustees cannot generally be paid for their work. UK gov quote:
When you become a trustee, you volunteer your services and usually won’t receive payment for your work.
Generally, charities cannot pay their trustees for simply being a trustee. Some charities do pay their trustees – they can only do so because it’s allowed by their governing document, by the Charity Commission or by the courts
My guess is that the CC would probably approve payment to at least a minority of board members for a limited time; their guidance on when they will do so is here.
They do seem to be concerned about conflicts of interest—but I would view providing reasonable compensation to a minority as posing lower risks than the likely alternative (which is that people who work for other EA organizations take on the role, and their employer implicitly subsidizes their board membership by not reducing their salary and understanding that their productivity for the employer may be impacted).
Ah, I defer to your superior expertise! But I think it would mean specifically getting permission from the CC, which sounds like quite a bit of faff anyway, and after which they might still say no.
I can’t speak for EVF (with whom I have
no affiliation), but would encourage anyone for whom financial considerations would be a barrier to apply and note that. The status of the applicant pool may be relevant to whether EVF wants to make an application to the CC, and is relevant to whether the CC would allow an application.
Just a note for the UK boards: trustees cannot generally be paid for their work. UK gov quote:
My guess is that the CC would probably approve payment to at least a minority of board members for a limited time; their guidance on when they will do so is here.
They do seem to be concerned about conflicts of interest—but I would view providing reasonable compensation to a minority as posing lower risks than the likely alternative (which is that people who work for other EA organizations take on the role, and their employer implicitly subsidizes their board membership by not reducing their salary and understanding that their productivity for the employer may be impacted).
Ah, I defer to your superior expertise! But I think it would mean specifically getting permission from the CC, which sounds like quite a bit of faff anyway, and after which they might still say no.
I can’t speak for EVF (with whom I have no affiliation), but would encourage anyone for whom financial considerations would be a barrier to apply and note that. The status of the applicant pool may be relevant to whether EVF wants to make an application to the CC, and is relevant to whether the CC would allow an application.
Thanks for raising—it sounds like it is not that easy to change the governing doc on this matter.