Trusts & Not for Profit
The Summerfield Charitable Trust (SCT): I spent 10 years on the board of this Gloucestershire grant-making trust. As an actively engaged Trustee, I assessed more than 1,500 grant applications, agreed and distributed grants of some £ 6m to just under 1,000 organisations. During my tenure, the Trust grew significantly in terms of financial wealth, outreach and impact within the county by supporting vital causes within the built heritage, the environment, community and education sectors. My personal remit included the financial committee (£10m portfolio), the grants assessment committee and overseeing the Trust’s commercial property. I was instrumental in steering the Trust towards ecologically sound grant-making decisions and ensuring that the board’s governance principles were adhered to. SCT is now one of Gloucestershire’s leading grant-makers.
Keep Britain Tidy (KBT): I joined the board of this well-established national environmental charity in 2013 and stepped off in 2019. During my first 3-year term the charity underwent a huge trans-formational change, altering the funding structure from being fully publicly funded to becoming an independent organisation wholly reliant on commercial/alternative funding. I was a key player in supporting and engineering this transfer. I took on the role of Chair of the trading subsidiary (Encams Enterprises Limited) to handle the non-direct commercial income projects. I also advised and mentored the executive to derive income from a variety of sources most of which were new to the existing board and staff, such as applying to trusts & foundations, seeking sponsorship from commercial organisations and helping to create new income-generating resources. Latterly during my second stint, these took the form of recruiting for and setting-up litter/waste training academies, the creation of the new Centre for Social Innovation and the implementation of a UK-wide plastic bag charge. KBT is now one of the UK’s top five environmental charities.
The Road Safety Trust (RST): I joined the board of this newly established charity in 2017 and stepped off the board in April 2022. The charity is the beneficiary of surplus funds transferred to it by its wholly owned subsidiary, UKROEd, which designs and runs driver awareness courses for drivers who commit driving offences. I was appointed as an independent board member because of my sound commercial understanding and depth of experience in grant-making. The RST distributes grants for projects which reduce the number of KSIs (Killed and Seriously Injured) on UK roads. Their mission is to have zero road deaths. I was appointed both as a full board member and also as a member of the Audit and Risk Committee (£80m budget) and the Road Safety Initiatives Committee (RSIC), which assesses and decides which projects are grant-funded and to what extent. Working closely with the executives I helped create the structure to bring the two separate boards (RST and UKROEd) closer together and established a robust operating strategy. As a member of the Initiatives Committee I have personally analysed over 150 different road safety projects. By 2017 the RST had funded only 5 small grants. During my trusteeship RSIC has awarded some £4m to 56 separate projects averaging £70k each. RST is now the UK’s largest funder of road safety projects.
Open Food Network (OFN): I joined the board of the UK-wide offshoot of this global organisation in 2017 and stepped off the board in April 2022, after 5 years. OFN is a software platform and food community, providing an online forum for buying and selling local foods as well as a nexus for meeting like-minded organisations across the world. OFN operates in some 20 countries and has almost 3,000 users (producers and shops) in UK. My role as a board director has been to advise the executive team on analysis, presentation and strategy. OFN UK has been highly successful in obtaining funding from a wide number of sources and I have been mentoring them on the challenges and opportunities this creates in turning outside funding into a long-term sustainable business proposition.
Stroud District Action on Plastic (AoP): I co-founded this action-based campaign in 2018 with three others. It is a Gloucestershire-based initiative that aims to provide individuals, organisations, institutions and communities with information, ideas, tools and resources to reduce their plastic footprint, particularly single-use plastic. Having completed and been awarded the Plastic Free Community status in 2020, AoP launched a number of actions and programmes and produced an informative website which has helped it win a prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee 2022 year. The action continues.
Growing Trusts
I am keen on third sector organisations, not-for-profits, charitable trusts and incorporated groups who have a meaningful aim. I have many years’ experience in working with and running such organisations, encouraging board trustees to actively participate and make meaningful contributions, ensuring concise and relevant information is provided and that a spirit of co-operative openness exists to shine a light on the aims, processes, outputs and outcome.
I am particularly interested in the grant-distribution sector especially where there is considerable requirement for reading, digesting and analysing lengthy applications within tight timing and financial constraints and where fairness is essential throughout the process.
James Millar 