* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Trust drops for charities which are seen to be large, professional, international, state-funded, and political - NPC poll
Katie Nguyen wrote yesterday about the controversy in the UK swirling around the international charity Save the Children. But how much deeper will the controversy run?
Time will tell. Public trust in charities is a fragile and complex thing, as recent polling has shown. Anything that threatens a charity’s hard-won reputation for fairness and effectiveness poses a real risk, even to the largest charities.
Save the Children's US arm has just honoured Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, for his work helping kids across the world through his charitable foundation since leaving office. Whatever the appropriateness of the award, the decision has proved awkward for Save the Children in the UK, where hostility remains toward Mr Blair over his decision to take the country into the Iraq war. Hundreds of the charity's own staff have written to senior managers to protest at the award. Some loyal supporters have vented on social media, making clear their disgust and, sometimes, their refusal to donate any more money. The spat is front page news.
Sometimes social media rows flare up and drift away just as quickly. Sometimes, though, they represent something more substantial: the charity will surely keep a wary eye on the next quarterly figures, just in case they show a dropping-off in numbers of donors.
There is also the wider question of trust. How do issues like this affect a charity’s reputation, and the faith that the public is willing to place in them?
Polling last month by New Philanthropy Capital and Ipsos MORI looked at how the public view the voluntary sector, and specifically what drives trust or the lack of it. A clear picture emerged—and it's one that should provoke serious thinking among many of the UK's best known charities.
As the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported at the time, people prefer their charities as small and local as possible. Trust levels drop for charities which are seen to be large, professional, international, state-funded, and political. Charities like Save the Children tick all these boxes, so we can guess that the latest row will only lead to greater scepticism in some quarters.
It's tempting to imagine that public trust and the odd £15 monthly payment hardly matter for a charity with hundreds of millions of pounds coming in each year. But that would be foolish. Charities need unrestricted income to do their work, and they trade on their public reputation when they seek backing for innovations and projects. At the same time, a charity’s staff can act as their cheerleaders and future funders. You can’t afford to alienate them.
Hoping the whole thing blows over probably isn’t an option.
Russell Hargrave is Media Manager at the think tank New Philanthropy Capital.
Prior to this he worked at the charity Asylum Aid. As a communications consultant Russell has worked with, among others, the Oxford Research Group and Corum Children’s Legal Centre.
