News

Saxton to publish strategy for raising public trust and confidence

Governance | Tania Mason | 26 Sep 2012

Joe Saxton plans to use this afternoon’s public meeting of the Charity Commission to unveil a new strategy for boosting public trust and confidence in charities, as he says the Charity Commission itself does not appear to have one.

Saxton will be one of the panellists at this afternoon’s event in Westminster, taking part in a debate around the latest independent research on public trust and confidence in charities published recently by the regulator. The discussion will be headlined: 'Do charities deserve the public trust they enjoy?'

Saxton, driver of ideas at nfpSynergy and chair of CharityComms, will join Dan Corry, chief executive of New Philanthropy Capital; Steve Egan, deputy CEO at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and Caroline Harper, chief executive of Sightsavers International, on the panel.

Saxton told civilsociety.co.uk that he will be unveiling a strategy for raising trust and confidence in charities, “as nobody else appears to be doing one”.

He cited a recent warning by Charity Commission CEO Sam Younger that charities must not allow the charity brand to be diluted if public trust and confidence is to remain high, but described this as ironic given that the Charity Commission itself has no apparent brand strategy.

“All the Charity Commission seems to have done is measure trust and confidence in some forlorn hope that this will make it go up. They have no sense of appearing to have a strategy for raising trust and confidence, despite having a statutory duty to do so,” Saxton said.

"The single most important brand to build public trust and confidence in charities is the Charity Commission because it needs to reassure people that their money is being well spent and so on. So the Commission needs a brand strategy as well as charities."

NPC: Impact reporting is crucial

NPC’s Dan Corry will add that the regulator should be actively encouraging charities to be more transparent and clearer about their impact, if it wants to boost trust and confidence.

He will insist that impact measurement and reporting should no longer be considered a fringe activity, and that charities must “routinely evidence their effectiveness”, particularly as they play a greater role in providing public services, often in tandem with private sector corporations.

Next month NPC will publish the findings of the first survey of impact measurement by UK charities, which will show, according to Corry, that an unprecedented number of organisations are now measuring and reporting on the results they achieve.

• @TaniaMason will be tweeting from today's meeting. Follow the event at #ccmtg and come back to civilsociety.co.uk tomorrow for a full report of the event.

Directory: nfpSynergy | Sightsavers | Charity Commission | New Philanthropy Capital
Who's Who: Sam Younger | Joe Saxton | Dan Corry