How should charities communicate and survive the economic downturn? Peter Bingle, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs had some sound advice – “deal with Brown, prepare for Cameron.”
It was uncomfortably political for some of the audience at the conference where Peter spoke, but made sound sense to me. I was attending as chair of trustees for Headway Cambridgeshire, and captured Peter’s advice on my video camera.
He recommended making Nick Hurd your new best friend as the Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering could become Minister of a new body, the Office of Civil Society to promote this sector. David Cameron’s view is that the third sector should become the first sector, which will be music to the ears of those involved with charities who are struggling to survive and have their voices heard.
The leading PR guru sounds quite confident about a new Conservative government on the horizon and urged charities to act now by talking to the Tory Party, meeting Conservative policy makers and parliamentary candidates to help write the manifesto and policy agenda for the next government.
It seems that people are more certain of what the political climate will be in the future.
It seems strange to me why we even bother with elections sometimes when it seems as if everyone is aware of a changing of the guard a long time before it takes place.
That being said though, I hardly think one needs a crystal ball to see who will need to be seen about future charitable issues.
“deal with Brown, prepare for Labour.â€
er this bit in your post doesn’t seem to line up with the heading.
Thanks Weggis, it does now.
I’m not really convinced that right now this country needs yet another quango with grand ambitions and an even grander budget.
Let’s hope they give more tax breaks for donors to charity
(I was at this conference too Ellee)
Although I didn’t agree with Peter’s view, I thought he gave some clear advice on how to anticipate and approach MPs and ministers whether ‘in power’ or ‘in waiting’
There were many useful presentations on the day, including some useful tabloid tips and some great advice about changing opinion.
Charitygirl, the speakers were really interesting and I hope to publish a couple more videos from the day, time permitting, including Jon Snow and the Mail on Sunday deputy feature editor.