Head of ImpACT talks trust and confidence with chief executives
29th Jan 2010
Trust me, I’m a charity worker.What does the perfect charity look like? Piece together the perfect charity from the public’s point of view and it’s one that has little or no overheads, has no paid staff (except for the chief executive, who might earn up to a whopping £10k), spends 100% of its income on the cause, and never makes mistakes. Does this sound like your organisation? Of course not. However, add together the many clichés about charities and the picture that emerges is one that none of us recognise. At best, this picture represents a caricature of the sector forty years ago.
The gap between how charities operate and how the public thinks they operate has grown exponentially over a number of years thanks to myths masquerading as facts, inaccurate assumptions and, most worryingly, our silence. So what’s the big fuss? The public trust us, don’t they? Well, let’s explore what it actually means to be trusted by the public.
It’s just over a year since we saw public trust in banks plummet faster than their share prices. While the financial stimulus package helped the banks’ share prices recover, there is no quick fix to regain previous levels of public trust. Could this happen to the third sector? What if public trust in charities were to diminish or worse disappear? ‘But we’re not like the banks! We’re the good folk of the third sector!’ I hear you cry. True, the sector is hardly likely to self destruct as a result of hubris and excessive bonuses. But the significant perception gap is a very real threat to the high level of public trust the sector currently enjoys. Take the recent furore over charity CEO’s pay. The story was picked up by several news sources and spread over the course of an entire week precisely because it has an air of scandal about it. Beyond the sector, nobody really has a clue what charity CEOs are or should be paid, because we have traditionally been opaque or hesitant about offering up such information. Such stories exploit public understanding of charities, or rather lack of understanding. Such stories reaffirm the old clichés and undermine trust.
The lack of public understanding about charities was highlighted by the Charity Commission’s 2008 report on public trust in charities. The research found that 59% of the public admit to knowing very little about charities. So, if the public hold concerns about charities, yet know very little about us, why do we enjoy such a high level of public trust? The answer is quite simple. Historically we have let our charitable principles do the talking: we do good, therefore you should trust us. This has resulted in a version of trust that lacks the requisite confidence, and trust without confidence is simply good will. Relying on good will alone is unsustainable, because issues like the recent CEO salaries debate will gradually erode this good will. We need to build confidence in order to bolster trust.
We must nurture confidence by getting better at demonstrating how well we perform; we have to shout about how we achieve our results, not just deliver top end results. In short, we have to be more open and honest, or, in the language that we have all become accustom to, we must be more accountable and transparent.
Thankfully, we’re not hiding any unpalatable truths about the sector. We need to pay for overheads because we cannot operate without basic equipment and an office, we need to pay staff wages because we are yet to uncover a reserve of highly skilled professionals that are willing to work full-time for free, we need to pay competitive CEO salaries to attract the top talent from within the sector and beyond, and we do make mistakes, but also learn from them and become stronger organisations for the experience. Finally, and crucially, we do deliver the goods; we have a lot to be proud of.
These are all very reasonable arguments to make; we just need to get better at making them. If handled with sensitivity, increasing the accountability and transparency of your organisation need not present a threat. Remaining cognizant of public misperceptions and understanding that you are embarking on a journey to improve your organisation’s performance is essential if you want to get it right. It’s not about exposing flaws; it’s about improvement and effectively communicating that improvement to all your stakeholders.
We have stood on the sidelines and watched the public and the media shape the way charities are viewed for too long, it’s high-time we joined the debate.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2010 edition Network, ACEVO's magazine for third sector chief executives.
