A good charity awards dinner last night (the Civil
Society Media one). Third sector one is soon too. Held at the Grosvenor, but as
the presenter said they have 2 good restaurants, and then the one in the
underground car park we sat in! A good occasion, both to hear about the work of
award winning charities and for networking with members.
However, do Civil Society need to review their nutrition
policy? Serving dinner so late and a
very unhealthy sugar rich dessert served late (then chocolates and coffee!
Shocking. And the CEO of Diabetes UK was sitting at our table).
And then the awards not ending till 11pm. Oh dear. Am I
sounding grumpy and old? Still, my white DJ survived on its second outing. It
gets another airing for my College Gaudy next week.
At least we get a glass or 2 of bubbly to start with. One
of my Directors kindly sent me an article which shows that drinking champagne improves
your memory. I knew it was good for you. So all those sandal wearers who “tut,
tut” when I mention this subject: Eat
your hats, or preferably the sandals.
See:
A good chat with Alistair McLean, who heads the excellent
Fundraising Standards Board, about fundraising complaints. As he said to me,
the overwhelming fact is that charities handled all their complaints so well.
Their members reported receiving 33,744 complaints; the overwhelming majority
of these were satisfactorily resolved with only 14 escalated to Stage 2, and of
those only 3 became Stage 3 complaints.
This is something
to celebrate. The sector may have complaints but they handle them well and
should be proud of that achievement. We had a good discussion about how we
should celebrate this low level of problems over fundraising, including
chugging. I think we need to be more robust in defending ourselves from
ignorant and bigoted attacks in reactionary newsprints on chugging. People who
complain are nearly always misers who are embarrassed about being reminded how
mean they are not donating.
I recently had a call from Shelter who contacted me to up
my donation, which I made after being stopped by a charming chugger in Kings
Cross. I was happy to do so. It was a silent protest at some of those members
of PASC who hate Shelter's campaigning!
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