In addition the research carried out by Inclusive Boards for the business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee shows that of the 5,988 trustees identified, just 379 (6.3%) were from BAME backgrounds. This is compared to 8% of FTSE 100 company directors and 3.5% of senior leaders in 500 public sector organisations.

Over half of the charities in the top-500 had ‘all-white governance’. From the 500 charities surveyed, 287 (57.4%) had no identifiable BAME trustees whilst as many as 113 charities (22.6%) had as few as 1% to 10% BAME representation on their boards of trustees.

Together, the top 10 charities registered in England and Wales have a combined reported annual income of £6.488bn. Three of the largest charities had no identifiable BAME trustees, including Cancer Research UK, The Lloyd’s Register Foundation and Nuffield Health. 

However, of the 121 trustees listed in all of the top 10 charities, 16 were identified as BAME, equivalent to 13% BAME representation, compared to 6.3% in the wider top 500 listing and 8% in the FTSE 100. Half of the BAME trustees in the top 10 charities were female.

Eight charities in the top 500 had all-BAME boards of trustees. These were organisations with a predominantly international focus, or primary charitable objectives aimed at supporting ethnic minority or religious groups.

Richard Fuller, a member of the committee which is currently looking at diversity in governance structures said he was ‘shocked at this news’.

‘Charities have a vital role to play in helping the most vulnerable. On a commercial level, charities could give experience to experts who will eventually join FTSE boards, whilst also allowing themselves to benefit from vitally needed know-how. Urgent action is needed to deal with the underrepresentation of BAME leaders on charity boards and I hope we can see good progress soon,’ Fuller said.

The research was commissioned by Inclusive Boards which works to support the third and public sector to attract more BAME leaders at board and executive level. The organisation is calling for charities to develop diversity benchmarks to compare diversity performance with the private and public sector.

It also recommends that the government review policy and legislation with a view to addressing the lack of diversity within charity governance, putting this on par with public sector requirements.  This should include setting a target of doubling the number of BAME trustees to 12.6% by 2020.

Samuel Kasumu of Inclusive Boards said: ‘The issue is not a lack of talent and is more likely to be a lack of access to opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds. It would seem that the same old boys network that exists within the private and public sector is very much alive within the third sector too.’

To download Inclusive Board's Diversity in Charities Autumn Report click here.