Independent Trustee — Charity Governance & Fundraising

We're a young Community Interest Company teaching the Quran free to 500+ students across six continents. We're converting to a charity and want an independent trustee with governance or fundraising experience to help us build a strong board and open the door to grant funding.

What difference will you make? Your biggest impact is direct: you make us eligible for funding we currently can't reach. Most education and community grant funders want to see independent oversight on the board before they'll consider an application. Right now we don't have that, so the door is closed. An independent trustee with governance experience opens it, and that single change affects everything downstream: how many students we can reach, whether we can support our volunteers, and how fast we can grow.

Beyond eligibility, you'd shape the conversion itself. We're moving from a CIC to a charity this year, and the decisions we make now about board structure, sub‑committees, and financial controls will hold for years. Getting that right with someone who has done it before saves us from the mistakes small charities make when they scale on enthusiasm alone.

On fundraising, you'd help us move from one big annual campaign to something steadier. If we can build recurring giving and start winning grants, the founder stops carrying the financial risk personally, and the free classes stop depending on a single good week in Ramadan. That security is what lets us plan more than a few months ahead.

The honest version: we've proven people want this and that we can teach well. What we haven't yet built is the governance and funding base to make it last. That's the gap you fill, and it's the difference between a project that runs for a few years and an organisation that still teaches into the future.

What are we looking for? The one thing that matters most: you are independent. You are not a friend, a family member, or someone already involved in The Quran Group. After that, we are looking for one or both of two backgrounds:

• Charity governance: You have been a trustee before, or you have worked closely with a charity board, and you know how a small organisation is supposed to be run properly: the reporting, the controls, the line between running the thing day to day and holding it to account. Ideally you have helped an organisation through its early governance, or through a conversion like the CIC‑to‑charity move we are making now. If you have sat on a board that had to get itself funding‑ready, that is close to exactly what we need.
• Fundraising: You understand how charities build income beyond a single annual push: recurring giving, grant applications, the trusts and foundations that fund education and access. You do not need to be a professional fundraiser. You need to know enough to help the board plan income sensibly and ask the right questions about it. Someone with both would be ideal. Someone strong in one is still very welcome. If you have to pick, governance is the more urgent gap.

On qualities, the useful trustee for us is the one who will disagree with the founder. This organisation was built and is still largely run by one person, and the point of bringing you in is to add a voice that is not his. So we want someone comfortable asking hard questions, pushing back on a decision, and saying when something is weak. A board that only nods is worse than no board.

You should also be comfortable with how we work remote, online, across time zones, informal, fast. We have never charged a student and never will, and the people here are volunteers giving what time they can. If you need a formal, in‑person, corporate board culture, this will frustrate you. We do not need you to have any connection to Islam or to Islamic education. Understanding of the communities we serve is welcome, but the skills gap we are filling is governance and funding, and that experience travels.

One honest note on time: This is a real responsibility, legal duties included, but the hours are light and the meetings are online. We are not asking for a heavy weekly commitment. We are asking for judgement, a few hours a month, and a willingness to hold us to a higher standard than we would manage on our own.

What will you be doing? The Quran Group grew fast. In under two years it went from a few free classes to over 500 students across six continents, taught by a volunteer team of scholars and huffaz. It was built and is still largely run by its founder. That is the strength and the risk, and it's why we want you.

We're now converting from a Community Interest Company to a charitable structure, and building a proper board is the heart of that move. Our current trustees are close to the founder, which a grant funder reads as a founder with no independent oversight. We want to change that before we apply for the funding that will let us grow without burning out the people holding it together.

This is where you come in. We're looking for an independent trustee, someone not already connected to us, with experience in charity governance, fundraising, or both. You'd help us set up the board properly: the sub‑committees we need, the reporting a funder expects, the separation between running the organisation day to day and holding it to account. If you've helped a small charity through its early governance, or sat on a board that had to get funding‑ready, that's the experience we need.

The fundraising side matters just as much. Our income has been donations, mostly one campaign that raised £7,000 in a week during Ramadan. That shows people believe in us, but a single annual push is not a foundation. We want a trustee who can help the board think about sustainable income: recurring giving, grants, and the trusts that fund education and access. You would not be running the fundraising. You would be helping us govern it well and decide where to aim.

There is a specific reason this is urgent. The thing standing between us and most education grants is board independence, and you are that fix. The work itself is remote and light in hours, a board that meets online across time zones, which we are used to. We're an informal, fast‑moving team that has never charged a student and never will. What we're missing is the layer of oversight and financial planning that turns a promising project into a lasting one. If that's your area, you'd see the difference you make quickly.