Trustee to the Board – Strategic Finance/Corporate Partnerships
Closing date: 10am on Monday 15 December 2025.
Interview date: January 2026 (details to be confirmed)
About the National Biodiversity Network Trust
Our vision is of nature thriving everywhere, in all its diversity. We’re a small, specialist charity with the mission of “making data work for nature”. We believe that the adage “What gets measured gets done” applies in nature conservation just as it applies in business, and we take pride in providing the biodiversity data needed for nature’s recovery: data to plan, to set targets, and to measure and monitor progress.
We manage the UK’s largest partnership for nature – the National Biodiversity Network – which brings together more than 200 organisations with an interest in collecting, sharing, and using biodiversity data. Our data portal, the NBN Atlas, is one of the world’s largest publicly accessible sources of biodiversity data, and is relied upon by conservationists, researchers, and educators across the UK and beyond.
Much of the data we share is created by the UK’s remarkable community of volunteer wildlife recorders. We make sure that all their hard work has the greatest possible impact for nature. We also manage iNaturalistUK, one of the fastest growing recording apps, with more than 80,000 users.
We have four strategic ambitions, as set out in our 2022-27 Strategy:
- The NBN Atlas is the ‘go to’ place for sharing, finding, and accessing UK biodiversity data.
- Biodiversity data is providing the evidence needed for nature’s recovery.
- Citizen science is valued, supported, and expanded as a major source of biodiversity data.
- The National Biodiversity Network is a well-connected and highly collaborative community with a united voice on key issues.
Join the Board of the National Biodiversity Network Trust
Do you have the skills, experience, and passion to help a UK-wide environmental charity tackle the nature emergency using the power of data?
The National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) is looking to recruit two new Trustees to join our Board and help deliver our ambitious 2022–2027 strategy.
About the NBN Trust
The NBN Trust is a specialist charity dedicated to providing the evidence needed to protect and restore the UK’s wildlife. We are a nature conservation charity, a tech charity and a people charity rolled into one. At the heart of our work is the NBN Atlas, our data portal. The NBN Atlas is the UK’s, and one of the world’s largest repository of publicly available biodiversity data, bringing together data from 170 partners. With more than 250 million records of 50,000 UK species, the NBN Atlas is a vital resource for those who wish to understand and protect nature.
Becoming a Trustee
We’re passionate about making nature conservation accessible to everyone, and we encourage applications from people from all backgrounds, including those that are under-represented in the environmental field.
As a Trustee, you’ll play a key role in supporting the NBN Trust’s mission by offering strategic guidance, oversight and specialist insight. Trustees share collective responsibility for ensuring the charity is well-governed, financially sustainable and operating in line with its charitable objectives.
Trustees are also responsible for meeting the legal duties set out by the Charity Commission, which include:
- Ensuring the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit
- Complying with the charity’s governing document and the law
- Acting in the charity’s best interests
- Managing the charity’s resources responsibly
- Acting with reasonable care and skill
- Ensuring the charity is accountable
Trustees provide strategic direction, oversee performance and risk, and support the Chief Executive and staff team in achieving impact. While the role is non-executive, Trustees are expected to ask constructive questions, offer informed challenge, and act as ambassadors for the NBN Trust and its values.
As a Trustee, you’ll play a key role in supporting the NBN Trust’s mission by offering strategic guidance, oversight and specialist insight.
We are recruiting for two roles and are particularly keen to hear from applicants with experience in one of the two following areas. Applicants should demonstrate how they meet the required personal specification for one of the below areas.
Role 1: Strategic Finance: Strategic oversight of robust financial management ideally within the charity sector.
Role 2: Corporate Partnerships: Building and sustaining successful relationships between the corporate and charity sectors, leading to increased income generation and opportunities.
Alongside this, applicants should be able to articulate why they are drawn to the work of the NBN Trust and our mission.
Key Information
- Time Commitment: Approximately 15 days per year, including attendance at four Board meetings, Committee meetings, our annual conference and team workday as well as time for reading papers.
- As well as attending full board meetings, Trustees are expected to sit on one of our Committees, or sub-groups.
- Meeting Format: Board meetings are usually held in person at an accessible venue in London.
- Committee meetings are usually held online.
- Term: Trustees are appointed for a three-year term, with the option to renew for one further term.
- Applicants must currently reside in the UK.
How to Apply
If you’re ready to contribute your skills to a cause that matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Please submit:
- A CV outlining your relevant experience and achievements (no more than 2 pages)
- A covering letter explaining why you’re interested in one of the above roles and how your skills align with the NBN Trust’s work (no more than 2 pages, please ensure you make it clear which role you are interested in).
- Contact details for two referees (who will not be contacted without your consent).
Apply to: hr@nbn.org.uk
Closing date: 10am on Monday 15 December 2025
Interviews: January 2026 TBC
Successful candidates will be invited to attend the Board meeting on Thursday 26 February as an observer and will be formally appointed at that meeting.
Download the Trustee to the Board information and Person Specification as a PDF.
Person Specification
More about us
The National Biodiversity Network Trust – making data work for nature