Trustees

Voluntary, 8 – 10 days per year

London-based

Involve is the UK’s leading public participation charity. Democracy is key to tackling the challenges we face, but it isn’t working as it should. If you believe, as we do, that a new type of democracy is needed, and that the UK is on the cusp of making this change - then this could be the role for you.

It’s become clear that the challenges of the 21st century are so complex they need communities, individuals, politics, business and civil society to work together well every day, to solve them.

Involve has led the way in the UK in advocating and campaigning for deliberative democracy. We have run hundreds of high-quality processes which demonstrate how participatory democracy works in practice. We have grown the capacity for decision-makers to use these approaches confidently. The UK now has a wealth of evidence that deliberative and participatory work delivers more effective decisions, builds trust, empowers people from all walks of life, builds community cohesion, and tackles polarisation.

We believe we are now at a critical tipping point when it comes to making deliberative and participatory democracy a real, everyday part of government. As such Involve has an important opportunity for strategic impact – embedding institutionalised participation and deliberation at national, devolved and local levels.

In recent years, Involve has developed to meet this opportunity; we have explicitly grown our advocacy and capacity building skills, and begun to work at grass roots levels as well as with institutional commissioners. We have a new impact framework which draws attention to the mindsets and capacities needed and shows how our high-quality projects create change in institutions and in democratic norms.

We are now seeking Trustees to join the Board at this immensely exciting time, who would like to take us on the next step of this journey.

You may come from a range of backgrounds, including fundraising, HR and change management, or politics and advocacy within organisations of comparable complexity; we would also be interested in hearing from candidates with experience in different emergent governance theory and practice, as well as of doing their own personal work on their own relation to rank, power and privilege. Most importantly, you will share Involve’s commitment to foregrounding the voices of those systemically undervalued and moving the UK to a place where deliberative and participatory approaches are a normal, everyday part of democracy.

If this sounds like you, and you are excited by the opportunity to steward a confident, maturing organisation looking to grow its impact significantly, we would be delighted to hear from you. To find out more and apply, please visit:

https://starfishsearch.com/jobs/involve-trustees/

The closing date is Friday 24th January 2025.