Ian Allsop wishes he could insure against damage to his own reputation.

No charity sector writer ever thinks that they will open a piece with the words “I dreamt about Sir Stephen Bubb the other night”. But that is what I am doing now.

It wasn’t a dodgy dream – I was at a conference, and he happened to sit down next to me. We briefly discussed the rights of charities to campaign and then I woke up.

This did make me wonder if political statements made by people in your head – while asleep – would be in contravention of the new Lobbying Act. It also made me contemplate risk.

So many risks

Predominantly, the very obvious risk of publicly admitting I dreamt about His Royal Bubbness. The risk here is a reputational one (for both myself and Sir Steve), the sort of risk which charities are grappling with particularly hard at present.

The press attacks on things like CEO pay and campaigning continue, while the Charity Commission looks ever more punch-drunk by the day.

Margaret Hodge. Currently two of the most unwelcome words in the English language – other than ‘more rain’ or ‘working party’. Her Public Accounts Committee has once again gleefully piled into the charity regulator. But which watchdog is the one that is unfit for purpose and failing to inspire confidence?

By shouting from the rooftops about how the Commission is in danger of losing public trust, she is only accelerating that process. While raising the profile of Margaret Hodge.

The Commission hasn’t helped itself at times. William Shawcross recently tore up the irony rulebook by urging charities to be better at protecting their reputation, by defending themselves against attacks. Including presumably the ones from people such as William Shawcross.

I do sense that people are feeling sorry for the beleaguered Commission team presently, and wonder if we need to set up some sort of charity appeal to support them. The regulatory emergency committee, or something. Run by a modestly-paid CEO.

Risk has also been on my mind as I have been collating the results of Charity Finance’s insurance survey. Charities are no different from any other potential customer in today’s society in needing cover for every eventuality, as a way of fulfilling their obligations to risk management.

This has become what some describe as ‘an industry’, which means that cynics think something has been overhyped to create a money-making machine.

But we should also consider that without risk management we would have very little need to use the word mitigate, and it would be a scandal if we could not – or, to put it another way, it would be a mitigategate moment.

We all regard insurance as one of those necessary evils that we have to have, but which doesn’t necessarily help us when we really need it.

Reading the small print

I have only tried to claim on a policy twice in my life. The first time was when the dining room ceiling collapsed in the late-Victorian terraced house we were living in at the time. But that was wear and tear apparently. I think this falls within the ‘acts of god’ get-out clause the insurance industry uses, even if you are an atheist. Or to give it its Ukip name, the gay marriage caveat.

Interestingly, the implication from our insurer was that if we had told a white lie about something specific causing the damage we would have been more likely to be successful with our claim. The same sort of white lie that the insurance industry then says is the reason they have to keep premiums so high. I think I can see how this works.

The other time was when we found that emergency dental work for a cat wasn’t covered by standard pet insurance. Yes, I know it all comes down to the small print, but we often don’t have the time or expertise to study the pages of jargon in tiny font.

Perhaps there is scope for a product covering people caught out by small print. Whatever, one thing that is clear is that you cannot explicitly insure against reputational damage. Any more than you can against what you dream about.

Ian Allsop is a freelance editor and journalist, and regular contributor to Charity Finance.