Finance Trustee – Westcountry Rivers Trust
The Westcountry Rivers Trust is looking for two new Trustees. Formed in 1994, the Trust was established to restore Westcountry rivers. Measures to protect rivers can help to save money for farmers, lower costs for water companies, boost tourism, reduce the need to dredge estuaries and even benefit human health. Everything the Trust does is informed by the best available science. Their work is driven by an ‘ecosystems approach,’ considering the function of the entire catchment, not just the rivers that flow within them.
Today this thriving charity works with a wide range of stakeholders from landowners to local communities, businesses, farmers and water companies to restore and protect the rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal areas for the benefit of people, wildlife and the local economy. In addition, a growing number of individual volunteers and groups are becoming increasingly involved in the work of protecting rivers.
We have had considerable success with securing project funding, achieving rapid growth in delivery and impact as a result However, this only allows us to deliver what others want to fund and it is not always possible to get project funding to cover what we would like to achieve – maximising our education and engagement as well as supporting core functions and project development. In order to increase core voluntary income for these key activities we have recently recruited an experienced and professional Head of Fundraising and created a new sub-committee to oversee our Fundraising and Engagement strategy. We now need to recruit a new Trustee who will bring their philanthropy and fundraising expertise to the Board and provide oversight and support to this new area of work
In addition, we are very keen to find someone with a strong accountancy background who can bring their understanding of charity finance to our Finance Sub-Committee, be a a critical friend to the Finance Director and take over as Chair of that committee in due course.
