Chair of the Board and Fundraising Trustee

This is your opportunity to lead the board of an organisation striving to make space for stammering and create a world where stammering is just a difference, no one judges stammering or how people choose to deal with it. Join the board of STAMMA and work with a brilliant community.

• Location: Hybrid, virtual and in-person meetings in London and Manchester

Applications close on Monday 27th May.

Who we are.

STAMMA is a small, award-winning charity with big ambitions working with a brilliant community keen to create space and respect for people who stammer.

Many people who stammer face daily ignorance, discrimination and disrespect. This can affect job prospects and mental health and cause social isolation. It can make a GP appointment a nightmare, stop you from accessing a service altogether and leave you feeling disbelieved. STAMMA is here to change that.

We have embarked on a new three-year strategy – Space to Stammer, to achieve real and practical change for people who stammer and showcase the inadvertent barriers they face. We aim to create a culture where consideration for people who stammer is akin to checking for wheelchair access; it is something to be thought about when it comes to every day like oral exams, customer services, booking GP appointments, online banking, or even being a parliamentarian. Our campaigns are about changing perceptions and have been award-winning and life-changing, and include Make GP Bookings Accessible, It’s How We Talk, No Diversity without Disfluency and campaigning against the Apple suggestion of the Woozy face emoji when the word ‘stammering’ is typed.

We want to reach more people who stammer and grow our base but to do that, we need to expand our training and advocacy services and underpin our whole range of support services, hence, we need to build our income streams.

We believe we’re on the cusp of creating real and long-lasting change for people who stammer. With this, this is a great time to join and lead our board as Chair.

About the roles.

Our new Chair

As our previous Chair, Joanna Gaukroger, stepped down due to illness, we are looking for a new Chair to lead our Board. It is vital that our new Chair shares our passion for creating a world that makes space for stammering, where a stammer is embraced as just a difference, and no one judges a stammer or how someone deals with it. Our new Chair will bring governance experience, be commercial and drive our strategy with our Chief Executive to continue our organisation’s development, including ensuring sustainability. Our new Chair will be committed to making a meaningful impact, foster engagement and strategic thinking.

Our new Chair will work with our ambitious board and executive team to ensure our organisation continues to be innovative and sustainable and champions the rights of those we support. We envisage our Chair as an inclusive leader, ensuring all voices are heard. We must represent our diverse communities, and we support everyone; those who passionately believe there should be no need to hide or control their stammer as well as those who seek more fluent or smoother speech.

Our new Fundraising Trustee

In addition to our new Chair, we are looking for a new Trustee who will bring skills and experience in strategic fundraising. Our new Trustee will have senior leadership experience with fundraising experience, particularly around individual giving, corporate partnerships, and major donor fundraising. Our new Trustee will share our excitement and ambition for change. We are looking for someone who can support us build our fundraising strategies and provide sound advice and challenge.

Time Commitment

The Board meets 6 times a year including an annual general meeting and our national conference – STAMMAFest. Meetings are usually held on a Saturday for 2 – 3 hours online and 4 – 5 in person. 3 of these meetings typically take place online, and 3 can take place in person in different locations across England, including London and Manchester.

We also have several committees; Trustees usually join one sub-committee. Our committees include the Finance Committee, the Fundraising Committee, the Research Committee, and the Membership Committee. Our new Fundraising Trustee will join our Fundraising committee.

We expect the time commitment for the Chair to vary. On average, we would expect the equivalent of c.2 days a month, spread across various activities such as preparation for board meetings, reading board papers, regular conversation with the Chief Executive, ad hoc discussions with board members and the executive team, and attending events throughout the year. The time commitment of our Fundraising Trustee would be the equivalent of a day a month.

Please click 'Apply’ to be redirected to the Peridot Partners website, where you can find full details of the candidate profile and register your interest to apply.

Applications for this role close on Monday 27th May.