It’s been years since I was tear-gassed, arrested and tossed in jail for something worth fighting for.  And the same holds for the leaders of most causes I support.

Is that a sign that most nonprofits have become too much a part of the establishment, too much a part of the problem?

In short, is it time for charities to become radical again?  Time to become unpopular again through the stances they take?  Time to go to war agains the status quo?

In a wonderfully provocative piece in  UKFundraising  titled The world Is anti-establishment now. But what are we?

Reuben Turner, the Creative Partner of Good Agency thinks “It’s time for charity CEOs to get arrested again.  It’s time to break the law again.  To do the things that have never been done before.”

Reuben argues that “radical thinking is now mainstream, in politics, in business and across the media—particularly online, where new media sources are amplifying voices of dissent and disaffection.”

The danger, he warns, is that by maintaining the go-along-to-get-along strategy of not rocking the boat many charities “are now seen as part of the broken establishment, not an antidote to it.”

The findings of  2017 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report provide some support for Ruben’s argument. You don’t have to live in Trump’s America or the UK’s Brexit to know there’s widespread dissatisfaction with the state of the world.

The Edelman findings are backed up by other research including that done by the firms WolffOlins in cooperation with CitizenMe indicate that “right now, over half of the people surveyed think we should we should be creating radically new systems, compared to just 14% who believe we should be reverting to things past.”

Don’t kid yourself into whistling past the graveyard in the belief that only those damn Millennials think this way.  The belief survey I cited above isn’t limited to the young.  As the authors note, “It spans age groups, genders and countries. Even amongst the over 55s, where pessimism is the most rife—50% of over 55s have a negative outlook compared to 33% of 18-24s—the desire for radical change is clear.” [Emphasis mine.]

What is most notable in Reuben’s post are results in that WolffOlins poll is the fact that the disaffected majority are now “much more likely to look to business as an agent of change than the charitable sector.”

In that poll 41% of the respondents suggested businesses should bring about societal change.  36% favored ‘individuals going good’ and only 15% suggested that charities and social enterprises held the answers.

That change—probably radical change –is needed will come as no surprise to Agitator readers and, in fact, to anyone who can read the statistics of decline in our sector.

The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reflects the most troublesome trend—the breakdown of the public trust in nonprofits.

Here’s Edelman’s verbatim summary:

“The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population’s trust in all four key institutions — business, government, NGOs, and media — has declined broadly, a phenomenon not reported since Edelman began tracking trust among this segment in 2012.

“With the fall of trust, the majority of respondents now lack full belief that the overall system is working for them. In this climate, people’s societal and economic concerns, including globalization, the pace of innovation and eroding social values, turn into fears, spurring the rise of populist actions now playing out in several Western-style democracies. 

“To rebuild trust and restore faith in the system, institutions must step outside of their traditional roles and work toward a new, more integrated operating model that puts people — and the addressing of their fears — at the center of everything they do.”

So, what’s the answer to rebuilding trust?

We’ll deal with some suggestions in posts this week.

Meanwhile, Reuben Turner offers his suggestions with the warning:  “If there is an answer, I’m not sure anyone wants to hear it.”

He goes on to recommend specific course of action and I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing these in bullet points.

• “It’s for charities to get radical again.
• “To stop cosying up to government, and…
• “make some more unexpected partnerships—with businesses, with movements, with individuals.
• “To stand for—and against—something again.
• “To speak the language of discontent, not reassurance.
• “To tell the truth when no-one else does.
• “To talk like humans do.
• “To give people something to join, a way to make a stand, a chance to make an impact.”

And…this final word from Reuben, “Ironically, it’s time to get unpopular again.  It’s the only way to be popular now.”

We’re happily setting some bail money aside for radical CEOs even as we send an Agitator Raise along to Reuben.

Roger