Our founding trustee and former vice chair Chris Bonnard stepped down from our board last year. To celebrate Chris’s work for Birmingham Community Matters (BCM), and capture some of his wisdom garnered from 50+ years in the voluntary and community sector, Marie Kreft interviewed him.

Chris Bonnard’s professional story starts in 1968 on a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) position in Nairobi, Kenya. Having grown up in a small town in Bedfordshire, in a middle-class white family, Chris says his time in Shauri Moyo, then a particularly deprived area of the city, woke him up to the concept of absolute poverty.

“One eye-opening example at the time was seeing the caretaker of the YMCA gymnasium, a man who owned a shamba [a small amount of land for growing crops] with whom I was on first-name terms, dismissed for allegedly stealing a small bag of sugar,” said Chris. “It felt like a complete injustice”.

It was also in Kenya that Chris met his wife, who was nursing in a Nairobi hospital. Maggie was born in Kenya, to a family from the Seychelles. They had a small wedding in Nairobi cathedral: “Just ten or twelve people because our families couldn’t be with us”.

Family and career

Chris and Maggie eventually settled in the UK, spending time in Bristol, Birmingham and Croydon, and raising two daughters, Claire and Michelle. Maggie continued with her nursing career, while Chris did youth and community work.

Chris’s career highlights included helping to develop a community sector in what was then known as Redditch New Town, and working for Ockenden Venture, one of the first refugee charities to be established in the aftermath of World War II. Despite driving 40,000 miles a year across England and Wales, Chris said he found Ockenden Venture in particular “a joy” to work for – thanks to the organisation’s strong values and sense of humanity. The driving was worthwhile, as Chris was supporting several resettlement centres for Vietnamese refugees.

Return to Birmingham

In 1987 Chris, Maggie and family moved back to Birmingham: they just “liked it more”, Chris said, thanks to strong roots they’d put down before, and the “more diverse community here”. Chris became chief executive of Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council, a role he remained in for thirteen years. He would also become the first director of Regional Action West Midlands, and later take on consultancy work.

When Chris retired from his paid career in 2006, he realised he’d never had a chance to volunteer for community projects near to where he lived. That’s when he became involved with Shenley Youth & Community Trust, which ran a large community centre. He joined the board as a trustee in 2010, becoming chair two years later – a role he fulfilled until 2019.

Chris explained why this particular organisation had appealed to him: “It enabled me to work with people at both a practical and governance level, offering services for, and run by, local people”.

The beginning of BCM

Chris also played a huge part in Birmingham Community Matters’ formation in the mid-2010s, alongside Emma Woolf, whom he’d known since his Wolverhampton days.

“Emma approached me and said ‘I’ve got this idea’, as Emma does! It was regarding the gap in provision for voluntary groups,” Chris explained. “She persuaded me to join a steering committee, as we called it then, to explore what this new organisation could offer. I took on some governance-type responsibilities that were suited to my experience in my career, such as developing a constitution and applying to the Charity Commission”.

Thanks to the tenacity and knowledge of Emma, Chris and others, Birmingham Community Matters (BCM) became a registered charity in 2016. Its vision: to support small and micro community organisations in Birmingham to connect and build their skills, confidence and resources.

Chris was vice chair to Emma’s chair on BCM’s board of trustees until 2023. He continues to volunteer as a BCM helper at our sessions around the city.

A helper’s insight

Chris finds it fascinating, through BCM, to have glimpses into people’s journeys in establishing community organisations. “It’s great when you can see successful outcomes,” he said. For this reason he has especially enjoyed working with Fruit and Nut Village in Stirchley, as well as King’s Heath Action for Refugees, whom he supported with the process needed to become a charity.

“But sometimes you don’t get any follow-up. Or people decide they don’t want to pursue their original idea. This is also a really important thing for them to talk through”.

So what does Chris see as essential qualities for BCM helpers?

“Good listening, flexibility and patience,” he said, taking time to think carefully about each one. “The knowledge that we are all different, coming to things from different positions. And good information. Although BCM’s official stance is that we do not give advice, it’s important that we have the information to give people if they’re planning something that isn’t appropriate or is against Charity Commission rules. We’d be doing them a disservice if we didn’t. We always say it nicely, of course!”

“You need a mix of people”

Chris said being a BCM helper is also a chance to live your values – and you must also represent BCM’s values.

“Social justice, community action, anti-racism, anti-poverty and challenging the causes of poverty: BCM helpers and the people we help all have different values that we bring to our work. But anti-racism and striving for equality are core. We expect that from all our helpers.”

Having served for so long as a BCM trustee, what does Chris think is needed for a successful charity board?

“You need a mix of people. A diversity in backgrounds and in skills, so every individual brings different knowledge and experience to the board.”

And for people thinking about setting up a community organisation, Chris’s wisdom is pithy and clear: “Be certain about why you’re doing it.”

We want to thank Chris, for his many volunteering hours, his knowledge and kindness, and his brilliant listening, all of which helped to steer BCM through its first few years. We are very grateful to retain him as a BCM helper.