July 20, 2013,
Guru in a Bottle 
One comment
Adventurer Bear Grylls is Chief Scout in the UK
The Scout Association one of the UK’s leading youth organisations, has been ranked as one of the most highly trusted institutions in the UK and second only to the Armed Forces. The Scouts overtook the NHS that had previously occupied the second slot but now drops to third place as a result of the surge in hospital scandals over the previous 12 months.
The recent poll of 1000 respondents, conducted by nfpSynergy, shows that 66% of people now trust charities ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ which is an increase of 2% on last year’s results and the highest figure for the sector since 2010.
Half of respondents in the survey said their reason for trusting charities was because they believe that they ‘follow high standards in their fundraising,’ and over 33% of people said they would trust a charity they or friends and family had had personal contact with, while being local or established a long time ago is a sign of reliability for one in three people.
This poll is a timely reminder that one of the most important foundations for communication is trust, a point that I explored in more detail in my latest book, High Impact Marketing That Gets Results.
If you cast your mind back to Tony Blair and the war on Iraq, it remains a textbook example of the way an absence of trust can cloud the public’s judgment on one of the most successful politicians of his generation.
It’s also interesting that the research by nfpSynergy demonstrates the public’s ability to draw a distinction between politicians making dodgy decisions and the trustworthiness of our Armed Forces that remain the most trustworthy institution in the country since the poll began in 2003.
Then again, it’s no real surprise to find that politicians remain the least trusted group in society, with insurance companies and multinationals languishing below banks and newspapers in the new rankings.
Trust is also the mandate for making so many important decisions in our lives – from our choice of partner, to the brand of car we drive, to where we choose to work and the school we decide to send our children to.
What the Scouts do brilliantly – and are a shining example to all – is to understand how trust is built, why it matters in everything it does and how to strengthen trust amongst its supporters and volunteers upon whom it depends.
It’s one reason why the Scouts has an organisation of over half a million members and a waiting list for those who wish to join, in comparison with those organisations that are struggling to get their messages across and are hemorrhaging members.
The poll also reflects the fact that trust in the BBC is historically at an all-time low, where once it reigned as the world’s leading public service broadcaster.
The Jimmy Saville debacle changed all that as well as the way in which BBC management attempted to clean up the mess, with multi-million pound pay-offs for those who had failed in their duties to the licence fee payer. Unsurprisingly, trust in the BBC has seen a sharp drop, falling four places in the poll.
It comes down to the fact that you have highly intelligent individuals reading your blog !