Trustee Opportunities with 50 Million Voices

50 Million Voices is an ambitious UK charity and international community transforming the world of work for people who stutter.

We achieve this mainly through running experiential online learning events for people who stutter, allies and employers, and sharing best practices, including through giving talks either virtually or in-person.

Founded as a campaign in 2019 and a charity in 2020, we bring together people who stutter, allies and employers. We challenge ill-informed negative assumptions about stuttering, help to bring down barriers to employment and career opportunities, and encourage greater understanding and acceptance of stuttering in the global workplace.

These changes can benefit everyone: the 50 million adults globally of employable age who stutter, allies, employers and society at large.

Our Values

We believe that:

• Stuttering is a different not a defective way of speaking
• Stuttering should not be a barrier to getting any job
• Stuttering should not be a barrier to fulfilling our potential
• Teams and organisations are more successful when they embrace different ways of speaking including stuttering

Our Activities and Impact

• We’ve successfully run 8 flagship Global Practice Interview events to date involving over 750 participants from 39 countries.
• Feedback on the impact of these virtual events is consistently strong.
  • For example, 94% of interviewees in our most recent events in October 2024 and March 2025, now feel ‘more confident’ than before about their next interviews as candidates who stutter. The remaining 6% feel ‘just as confident’ as before and would ‘definitely recommend’ the event to others who stutter.
• We know of several interviewees who have subsequently secured jobs or promotions, including already a new job for an unemployed interviewee from our March 2025 event.
• Many employers have subsequently improved their talent attraction, talent acquisition and promotion processes, thereby creating a win-win for themselves and for candidates who stutter.
• We’ve also run numerous educational sessions on stuttering in the workplace for employers, for example Audi, British Council, BT, Cargill, Compass, EY, NHS, Rolls-Royce, McCann, Royal College of Surgeons in England, TSB Bank and others.
• We often give talks at stuttering and disability community events, including global and national conferences and topic-led events. For example, we’ve recently been confirmed to speak at the International Stuttering Association World Congress in Finland in August 2025.
• In March 2025, we were named as a finalist in the Global Inclusion category for the Business Disability Forum’s ‘Disability Smart Awards 2025’. The other finalists are Coca-Cola and HSBC.

You can read more about our impact here.

50 Million Voices is a small charity with ambitions to continue to increase our impact each year. 

In 2024, our income was just over £50,000. In the current challenging conditions for small charities, we hope to at least match that amount in 2025.

Our Board currently comprises four Trustees, with our biographies available here. We’re now planning to increase this to six Trustees.

The role of Trustee is a formal position in the UK carrying legal responsibilities. As a board, we take these responsibilities seriously to ensure that the charity complies with all legislative and regulatory requirements.

To help our Trustees in fulfilling their roles, we encourage them to become involved in one or more of the Charity’s activities. For example, this may be volunteering as an interviewer in one of our Practice Interview events, participating in sponsored fundraising events, or taking on a specific responsibility such as Honorary Treasurer.

Trustee Role Description

• We are looking to recruit Trustees who share our values and our commitment to make a positive difference for people who stutter at work.
• As a Trustee, you will be part of the board that oversees the strategic direction, governance, and financial management of the charity.
• We welcome applications from both people who stutter and allies who do not, from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and who do not have to be located in the UK.
• We are particularly interested in candidates with expertise in one or more of the following (in alphabetical order):
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Financial administration, Fundraising, and Legal.
• We are also keenly looking for candidates with a global perspective and interest in the challenges for people who stutter in different cultures and minority communities.

Time Commitment and Expectations

The Board of Trustees meets approximately six times a year, with meetings held virtually and usually lasting up to two hours.  We currently have no plans to introduce Board Sub-Committees. 

As mentioned above, there is an expectation of some active involvement in the running of 50 Million Voices including, where feasible, participation in our events. As is normally the case with Charity Trustee appointments, the role will be on a voluntary basis and unpaid, while reasonable out of pocket expenses will be reimbursed.

Summary of Application Process

If you would like to know more before deciding whether to apply, please contact our Chair, Iain Wilkie, at chair@50millionvoices.org. 

To apply, please email Iain at chair@50millionvoices.org including your biography, and explaining in up to 300 words your interest in the role, and the skills, experience and amount of time you can contribute.  Applications will close on Friday 16 May. 

We will invite a short-list of candidates for interview, and we hope to appoint our new Trustees by Monday 16 June. 

Thank you for your interest in 50 Million Voices!