Loss of trust / The National Trust should appreciate its eccentric volunteers |
The National Trust has blacklisted a 71-year-old volunteer after he pointed out thousands of spelling mistakes and factual errors on the charity’s website, and then expressed irritation when his painstaking efforts were brushed aside.
Sensible charity managers overlook minor human imperfections, concentrating instead on volunteers’ generosity
Andy Jones had volunteered for the Trust for more than a decade, turning his hand to everything from gardening to membership queries and guiding visitors on walks. Acting entirely on his own initiative, he devoted more than 400 hours to compiling a detailed dossier of errors on the organisation’s website. He sent it, politely enough, to Hilary McGrady, the Trust’s director-general, asking whether she would ‘be so kind as to forward this to whomsoever has the authority and resources to address these errors’.
When he received no reply from the director-general, he sent a follow-up email a few months later, stating: ‘I sincerely hope my work is helpful to........