Pears Foundation

Tuesday 10th of June 2025, 10.00 – 14.00

Lunch Provided

Location: Pears Hub

Speaker: Peter Gilheany

In an increasingly polarised society, all charities are at risk of being caught in the crossfire and ending up the subject of a negative headline or social media campaign. When this happens it can be incredibly stressful for everyone connected with your charity, especially if you are scrambling to contact key staff and trustees and make decisions about messaging and priorities. It is worth spending time preparing for the moments when things can, and do, go wrong and when your organisation’s reputation is put at risk.

Communications expert Peter Gilheany has helped charities deal with every reputational crisis imaginable. In his popular lunch and learn sessions last year he covered the basics of crisis communications and how to create a reputational risk register, a document that captures all the big reputational risks an organisation might face, helps to rank them by likelihood and impact, develops ways to reduce the chances of them happening and outlines a process for how to deal with them if they do come to pass.

In this very practical and hands-on session, Peter will take you through every element of the process to create your own reputational risk register.

You will come out of it with a draft document to share with colleagues and trustees, a clear idea of how to use it effectively and, we hope, confidence that your organisation will be able to respond appropriately when a risk becomes a reality. It is also a good chance to meet and learn from other Pears partner organisations and gain new insights into your organisation’s messaging and processes.

Our Facilitator

Peter Gilheany is a Director of Foster Communications and leads their strategic communications work with charities, NGOs and foundations. He works with leadership teams to help organisations build trust and profile, covering everything from positioning and narrative development to campaigning. Peter is regularly quoted in third sector media, is on ACEVO’s advisory team, is a trustee of Pause and provided pro bono support for the #NeverMoreNeeded campaign on charity funding during the pandemic.

Who is it for?
This workshop is open to all staff from Pears grantee organisations, but will be particularly useful for those involved in policy and communications.

[Capacity: 30]