Powerful or powerless ?

Do ten things right and they don’t notice, do one thing wrong and they certainly do. It’s our job to get the ten things noticed to bury that one.

Brand: what you projectReputation: what sticks

Brand and reputation

“We stand for the human rights of mothers, fathers and children.”

Proactive

Active

Passive

Random

Engaging

Resilient

Vulnerable

Asking for it

Brand or bland?

Brand is what people say about you once you leave the room

What is brand?

What brand doesBrand is a way of building and using your reputation to persuade people to act in a way that will help you achieve your goals

Whose brand do you admire?

What sucks the lifeblood out of a brand?

Speed

Other people’s problems Irritants

Background radiation Killer blows

Potential severity

Background radiation

2

Mind the gap | What the public thinks about charities

14%

17%

42%

14%

9%2%

At NPC, we are passionate about helping charities and social enterprises to be more successful so that their efforts go further for the people, and the causes, they serve. This agenda would be under threat if the public were to lose faith in the sector. For this reason, we were keen to understand better how the public feels about the sector they support as donors, volunteers and taxpayers and to understand the effect, if any, of the negative media coverage on their perceptions. The more charities understand what the public thinks, the better placed the sector will be to develop a joint response to the criticism that has been—and continues to be—levelled at it.

We present here the findings of a poll carried out on our behalf by Ipsos MORI in January 2014

xviii

xii, with a representative sample of more than 1,000 adults from across Great Britain.xiii This builds on previous research by NPC, including Money for good UKxiv and Making an impactxv, and studies by ACEVOxvi, the Charity Commissionxvii and nfpSynergy among others.

The paper is divided into three sections: general attitudes towards charities and their role; views on key issues such as lobbying, fundraising and executive pay; and ideas on how charities should respond.

Attitudes towards charities and their role

A third (32%) of the public say that their views towards charities have become more positive in the last three years, compared with a quarter (23%) whose view has become more negative: a positive balance of ninepercentage points.

Figure 1: Perceptions of the sector

Thinking back over the past 3 years would you say in general your views towards charities have become…

Base: 1,035 GB adults surveyed in January 2014

This is indicative of a positive trend which is consistent with other research, including by the Charity Commission and Ipsos MORI, which showed an increase in trust since 2005. ‘Public trust and confidence in charities remains high, with the mean score for trust being in line with previous years at 6.7 [out of 10]. Charities are still one of the most trusted groups, with only the police and doctors being more highly trusted.’xix

This positive trend runs counter to the media narrative, but it is unlikely that bad news stories have had no impact at all. While the public is more likely to trust a charity it has heard of, the Charity Commission believes that negative media stories ‘create doubt…and can have a damaging effect on the sector as a whole.’ xx

Don’t know

A lot more positive

A little more positive

Neither/nor

A little more negative

A lot more negative

42%“We can’t – and shouldn’t – compete with salaries in the private sector but we need to pay enough to ensure we get the best people to help our work to stop children dying needless deaths” (Save the Children)

Other people’s problems... can become ours

Killer blows

Delayed action

Resilience

“Reforms have changed the charity ‘beyond recognition’, driving out people she values and leaving others demoralised.”

Irritants

Irritants

…they’re not looking for trouble

…it’s not a story, at worse it becomes a bit of Twitter-fire that soon burns out or gets lost somewhere (in the newspaper)

…and it gives us a chance to respond and tell the story about what we do…

…but you’d never guess that from the time I have to spend internally…

bad

Some not so minor

Speed

Other people’s problems Irritants

Background radiation

Amplification

Killer blows

Potential severity

Association

Escalation

Speed

Other people’s problems Irritants

Background radiation

Amplification

Killer blows

Potential severity

Association

Distances

Bulkheads Dilutes

Escalation

The effect of a powerful brand

Building a powerful brand

Brand Audiences

Preferences

Benefit of the doubt

Behaviour

Communication

Products

A truth well told

If you immediately ceased to exist, what would the difference be?Short termLong termUniqueImportant

Go for everyone, get no oneTo whom

For what

Audience: the main focusWhat action do we want them to take?

What do they currently think about us?

To make them act, what do they have to think?

Building a brandWhat we do?What area of activity are we in? What’s our status in the world?Why we do it?What’s our goal? What are the principles that drive us?How we do it?What is our personality? What do we want people to say about us?

Focusing on the audienceAudience: what action do we want them to take?

Our pitch, in one sentence

WHAT’s going on in the world that makes what we do important?

Context

RESPONSE we want

WHY do we feel that this is important? HOW does our work make a difference?

DREAMDropRetainEvolveAcquireManage

Getting the credit for what you do

Reputation is too important to allow mismanagement by someone else.