Russam is a “profit with purpose” organisation and a proud certified B Corporation. Our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) is integral to everything we do, particularly through our Trustees Unlimited (TU) business, which we founded in 2009 to help organisations diversify their boards and leadership teams.

For 16 years, TU has supported charities, foundations, social enterprises, and community organisations in recruiting exceptional leaders, placing as much value on ED&I and lived experience as on professional expertise. By combining open recruitment, targeted research, proactive outreach, and diversity monitoring, Russam removes barriers for underrepresented candidates and delivers measurable results. Recent examples include:

• 75% of recent appointments to a York-based charity were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

• Six of eight shortlisted candidates for a national disability charity identified as disabled.

• 100% of recent appointments to a charity supporting schools in underrepresented communities were ethnically diverse.

We amplify our ED&I impact through pioneering services, creative events, and trusted partnerships, such as:

• Sponsoring PhD research at Henley Business School on barriers facing ethnic minority trustees.

• Developing consulting services focused on board inclusion.

• Contributing to practical guides like From Here to Diversity.

• Supporting initiatives such as New Philanthropy Capital’s Walking the Talk series.

• Establishing Diversity Panels to guide our work.

• Hosting free, ED&I-focused events—for example, Darren Franklin, Doctoral Fellow at Henley Business School, recently headlined an event on “Moving from tokenism to agency,” addressing the lack of ethnic diversity on charity boards.

• Partnering with Girl Dreamer to advertise roles to young Black female professionals.

• Running our ‘Step on Board’ programme, which has placed nearly 600 professionals on charity boards, contributing around £17 million in voluntary time.

Internally, Russam embodies ED&I in practice. We are an Age-Friendly Employer, maintain a 50/50 gender split across the company and leadership team, and have over 30% of our team identifying as from ethnic minority backgrounds.

ED&I goes beyond policy for us; it’s embedded in our culture and influences how we connect, make decisions, and lead with purpose.

Melissa Baxter, Russam, Managing Partner – Charities