You can’t please all of the people all of the time. That’s a given. But particularly so at the moment. In an era of cuts, restructures and mergers charities are being faced with some hard choices.
So when your charity has to make difficult decisions, how do you take your stakeholders with you?
It’s a question perplexing many charity boards and CEOs at the moment, and with good reason. Because no charity can survive without its stakeholders. Sure, it’s impossible to keep everyone happy all of the time. But canny charities know that the value of an engaged and passionate community of stakeholders is beyond compare. Take Child’s i, a small charity with a huge brand. Child’ s i consistently punch above their weight because they have excellent relationships with their stakeholders who are enthusiastic advocates for their cause.
We all know organisations where stakeholder management has become very challenging- whether it’s because of industrial relations, a need to start charging for once free services or even a rebrand. How can such situations be avoided? And is it possible to turn some seemingly negative circumstances into, ultimately, a positive?
I’ll be chairing an event for Charity Leaders’ Exchange next week on 26 April where a panel of experts will be getting to grips with these very issues. (Do take their 1 minute survey on your views on stakeholders if you can). I hope to see you there. In my view, it’s essential that the sector starts to share best practice in this area. We need to have this conversation, because if we can all take our stakeholders with us on the uncertain road ahead, then not only will we survive but we will have built stronger charities for the future.