Building Trust

I wanted to say that I saw a good CRM going on here in Fayetteville on Thursday. A local restaurant here teamed up with the Arts Council and 25% of the restaurant's Thursday profits were to be donated to the Art Council. I was impressed with 25% but who knows how much that actually was or what their regular business on a Thursday is like. That could be their slowest night, which means they really aren't as charitable as they seem. But it is a new restaurant and they are probably using this CRM to build trust/branding among the community and bolster their good image.

In reading the ethics article for this week, I was struck by this particular passage,

"Unfortunately, a vast segment of nondonors, and even many donors, remain distrustful of
the nonprofit sector. To be successful, charity managers, and fundraising professionals in
particular, will need to identify ways to build trust between the organizations and donors
and potential supporters."

The article says there are a variety of ways, but fails to detail how a NPO might go about this other than saying time is on your side and people will eventually forget and give again. What do you do in the short run to regain trust? Perhaps increasing accessibility and openess about the organization is the best way. Some NPOs are reluctant to put out too much information for fear that competitors or opposition would use it against them, but when would that gamble be worth it to show key publics that you are ethically responsible (again). Maybe hooking your NPO to an influential person of moral standing would be the answer (i.e. hire some new ethical leadership). Or public apologies? And the sad part is, the damage to the public's trust may not even be of your NPO's actions, but yet it affects NPOs as a whole. Then what do you do? Step up good publicity efforts and just hope for the best?? I don't know, but the article left me wondering about how the best way to restore trust in the public would be.