Trustee Role Information
About Eastside Educational Trust
Eastside Educational Trust (Eastside) is a London based award-winning provider of arts educational workshops and programmes to children and young people from the most under-served communities across the country, and is one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations. By engaging children and young people through direct participation in the arts, and enabling them to work with professional artists and creative practitioners, it helps them develop their skills and creative thinking, so they can become empowered problem-solvers of tomorrow.
Eastside operates from its own newly refurbished accessible, environmentally friendly premises in Shoreditch and works with notable partner organisations including UNESCO, BAFTA, the British Film Institute, Disney, the Criterion Theatre, Adobe, John Lyon’s Charity, several borough councils and hundreds of schools. Over the past 31 years, Eastside has worked to inspire young people from diverse backgrounds, reaching 56,275 children through 2,114 creative sessions in the 2024/25 year alone.
Eastside’s work introduces important life skills such as collaboration, leadership, creative thinking, commitment and teamwork, encouraging young people, who otherwise may not have these chances, to put their creative talents to good use. At the heart of every Eastside project is the belief that all young people have the capacity to surpass expectations and surprise us with their resourcefulness, creativity and enterprise.
Eastside’s goal is to become widely known and celebrated as a National Centre of Excellence for Creative Education and Learning providing the highest quality creative opportunities to thousands of children and young people annually, in particular those in the most under-invested communities. We aim to deliver a ‘million differences’ to young lives across London and the UK by the end of 2030 through our arts and cultural programmes. Each ‘difference’ is a unique opportunity to access and participate in the arts, which is fundamental to developing critical-thinking, social and technical skills and to building the future prospects of children and young people.
Working to a visionary strategy with the delivery of two high profile national programmes, a strong portfolio of high impact programmes across London, a newly refurbished HQ building and an ambitious fundraising plan, this is an exciting time to be joining the organisation.
About the Role
Role Summary
Eastside seeks expressions of interest from prospective trustees who believe that they can make a significant and positive contribution to the organisation as we enter our 4th decade of delivery.
Remuneration: This is a pro bono role. Domestic travel expenses will be covered and reimbursed where required.
Reports to: Chair of the Trustees
Key Relationships With: Trustees, CEO / Artistic Director, Eastside Team, Key Stakeholders and Partners
Term of Appointment: 3 years +
Location: Eastside’s office on Hackney Road, E2 7NX, with occasional project visits across London and annual away day
Time Commitment: 3 termly Board meetings per annum, sub-committee participation and annual half day away day.
Role Specification
Eastside is seeking Trustees to provide guidance and support for the CEO and senior executive team as well as expertise to the Board of Trustees. The organisation is in a strong position going into 2026 and is set on significant growth and expansion, aiming to maximise the opportunities created by recent successes; these include outstanding results on our national projects: Creativity Live (streaming live creativity workshops into schools and classrooms across the UK); SPOKEN WORD POWER (which has engaged and captured the voices of thousands of young people from deprived neighbourhoods across the country); sell out West End Gala fundraising nights (APRIL FOOLERY) and a national lottery heritage fund supported 30th anniversary project.
The Trustees will support the team in delivering exciting new projects across the creative arts, with particular focus on spoken-word poetry, the dramatic arts and film/digital media programmes. The Trust’s work in schools is expanding and, while London remains a priority, there are clear plans to bring Eastside’s offering to a national and international audience.
Person Specification
Eastside is looking for individuals who are passionate about its work with children and young people, and its mission to transform educational provision and learning experiences across the capital city and beyond through the application of art, culture and creativity. Applicants will have strong professional experience and networks, as well as stakeholder, funder and partner leverage.
Trustees will advise on how to reach wider audiences, grow corporate partnerships and provide support for Eastside’s educational programmes. We particularly encourage applications from those representing diverse backgrounds and those with relevant lived experience. Experience at a senior level within the Arts/Youth Fundraising and Philanthropy sectors, Digital or creative arts (particularly film, TV and theatre), Legal, Education and Facilities management sectors (with revenue generation experience) would be welcome.
We welcome candidates who have experience of fundraising, either for a non-profit or a commercial organisation. Those without direct experience but who have good connections to high-net-worth individuals, grant-giving Trusts & Foundations or Corporate/Family Foundations are also highly encouraged to apply.
In addition to attending Board meetings, it is hoped that Trustees will attend Eastside projects where possible to engage with the creative delivery and the organisation’s artists, advocate for its work within their own professional and personal networks, and promote individual and company-wide fundraising initiatives. Sitting on a trustee board requires the ability to take a more advisory approach than in executive roles. If you have not previously held any trustee or non-executive positions, you should demonstrate a track record of influencing the direction of your organisation at board level. If you already have significant trustee or non-executive experience, please detail this.
Board Composition
Edward Benyon, Chair
Andrew Hall, Treasurer
Ankit Anand
Tom Webb
Nina McKay
Samantha Tulloch
Monti Kgengwenyane
Timeline
Applications Open: 18th February 2026
Deadline for applications: 9am, 23rd March 2026
Candidates can expect to be contacted w/c 23rd March 2026
Candidates can expect the interview process to be completed by: 6th April 2026
How to Apply
Please submit a brief CV (no more than 2 pages) and a one page covering letter to office@eastside.org.uk with ‘Trustee Application’ in the subject line. Please detail your skills and experience and let us know why you would like to work with Eastside and what qualities you would bring to the board.
For Further Information Contact:
Matt Lane – CEO Artistic Director – matt@eastside.org.uk
Edward Benyon – Chair of Board – edward.benyon@benyonestate.com
Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you soon.