YMCA Essex is a long-established, community-based charity that supports between 2,000 to 3,000 children, young people and families each year. Their work spans youth services, childcare, supported accommodation and family support.
Rooted in an inclusive Christian ethos, YMCA Essex plays an important role in strengthening communities across the county. As the charity looked ahead to a new phase of growth and development, YMCA Essex wanted to bring new voices and experience onto the Board to help guide the next chapter.
Context.
YMCA Essex was operating in a challenging environment, with rising demand for youth and family services and increasing expectations around governance, safeguarding and financial resilience. At the same time, they were developing plans to expand the charity’s services and progress a major redevelopment of their Chelmsford base, alongside ambitions to raise their profile and extend their reach across Essex.
There was a clear opportunity to refresh the Board and ensure it had the right mix of skills, perspectives and capacity to support the executive team through a period of change.
Brief.
Peridot Partners was engaged to design and deliver a trustee recruitment campaign to appoint two new Board Members. The focus was on finding people who could contribute at a strategic level and who genuinely connected with YMCA Essex’s purpose and values.
Priority areas included finance, governance, safeguarding, well-being and community leadership, with openness to candidates from charity, public-sector and wider professional backgrounds. There was also a strong commitment to welcoming first-time trustees and people with lived experience alongside professional expertise.
Working closely with the Chair and CEO, the brief was shaped collaboratively; agreeing on what “good” looked like, developing an engaging role narrative and taking an inclusive, open approach to recruitment. Targeted outreach and search helped reach a broad, diverse field.
Process.
The campaign’s tone was intentionally values-led. Interviews were jointly led by Peridot Partners and the Chair and CEO, who brought warmth, openness and curiosity to the conversations. Candidates consistently commented on how welcoming and collaborative the process felt and how clearly the organisation’s culture and ambitions came through at every stage.
Outcome.
Following an initial sift of several strong candidates, six candidates progressed to first-stage conversations, with four invited to final interviews. The final shortlist reflected a strong mix of backgrounds and complementary skills.
Given the quality of the field, YMCA Essex chose to appoint three Trustees rather than the two originally planned. The new Trustees brought added strength in senior financial leadership and governance, strategic and civic leadership within Essex and specialist expertise in child and adolescent mental health, safeguarding and trauma-informed practice.
Together, these appointments significantly increased the Board’s capacity across finance, well-being and safeguarding, while also strengthening future succession planning. The outcome reflected not just the strength of the candidate pool, but the positive, collaborative way the campaign was run, leaving YMCA Essex well placed to deliver the charity’s strategic ambitions.
Andy Drake, CEO, commented:
“I am glad we decided to work with Peridot. Right from the start, they were attentive and listened to what we needed. They approached this need with professionalism and insight, and led us forward with wisdom, warmth and a focus on excellence. I am happy to say the end results reflected the process, and I would gladly work with them again.”
Michael Bromfield, Chair, said:
“Peridot perfectly understood our organisation, needs and values and found candidates that were an ideal match, supporting us through the entire process and providing quality advice and insight.”
Clare Chesworth is a Managing Consultant for our Not for Profit Practice. Clare is passionate about recruiting executive and board leaders for organisations tackling social justice. With an empathetic and driven approach, Clare can find the right leaders to suit your mission. If you’d like to get in touch with her, you can connect with Clare on Linkedin or send her an email.
