A presentation outlining how trustees can manage, protect and defend their reputation - and how preparation is key

1. Sarah Pinch Chart. P.R, FCIPR MIoD
17th
March 2016
Reputation Management:
lessons, learnings & life

2. Sarah Pinch FCIPR MIoD
• 11 years at the BBC
• 13 years in corporate communications
• High profile sectors:
• International development
• Public transport
• Health
• Passion for behavioural change
• Reputational management
• Professional standards & compliance
• New teams in every role since 2000

3. Horizon Scanning
Know your issues
•What keeps you awake a night.
•Who is managing risk
•Where are the potential external
threats
•Who could de-rail your reputation
•Have a plan
•Tell your organisation there is a
plan.
•To do this you need data,
evidence and information

4. Planning in action: Stakeholders
•Research, research, research –
evaluate, plan and implement
•Establish the power base, key
influencers, key issues
•Set achievable goals
•Be clear & true to yourself
•Get external support/help
•Find out what’s already available
•Do your own research, if there isn’t
anything
•Be clear about not making decisions
without evidence and clear research –
who else would?
•Implementation and evaluation –
equally important

5. Reputation at board level
• Denial is not a acceptable approach
• Perception is reality.
• Who on the board is responsible for
reputation: exec & trustee
• Make a plan in peace time, for times
of conflict.
• Be clear about decision making
Fundraising needs to move above and
beyond regulation and compliance, from
simply just doing things right to also doing
the right thing.

6. Charities as a special case?
•The gap of trust is increasing
•Number 1 content creators
•Number 1 most trusted media
Trustees have an overriding
duty to act in the interests of
the charity. In doing so, they
must act prudently, balancing
issues of resourcing and
potential risks to the charity.
Trust in the sector has been
damaged, and it is only the
industry itself – by
demonstrating honesty,
reliability and competence on
a consistent and collective
basis – that can rebuild it.

7. Prepare for the worst and hope for the
best
Company reputation worth £1.7
trillion to the UK but quarter of
companies and organisations
ignore it
28%
Who on your board owns
reputation?
Trustee
Executive
Independent view

8. What to do?
Keep Calm
•Take professional advice
•Reputation is a serious business
•Establish all the questions & as many answers as you can
•Remember the source of greatest Trust
•Restoration, not promotion
•Remain calm and reasonable
“Although all catastrophes have
an initial negative impact on
value, paradoxically they offer an
opportunity for management to
demonstrate their talent in
dealing with difficult
circumstances.”
Sedgewick/Oxford University report
Ultimately our ambition is that
charities view and conduct
fundraising not simply as a way to
raise money, but most importantly as
a conduit between their donors and
the cause they wish to support.

9. Integrated Reporting

10. Sarah’s top ten reputational tips
1.Find out what people really think of you
2.Take professional advice when you need it
3.Recruit a trustee who understands the value of 28%
4.Get your own house in order
5.Values and behaviours = foundations
6.The power of third party endorsement
7.Have a plan, update, review, change.
8.Leadership v management
9.The devil can be in the detail
10.Roses need careful attention

12. Questions?
sarah@pinchpointcommunications.c
o.uk
@ms_organised