London Pilotlighter, Nick Gornall, tells Coutts magazine about what it is like to share his experience and knowledge with a charity.
Hands off to be helpful
Nick Gornall has a little secret. He’s a Pilotlighter, which means he spends time, every month,
sharing his expertise and knowledge with a charity. Here, he tells Coutts News about
working with good causes and his next big challenge – The Coutts Charitable Trust.
I heard about Pilotlight around four years ago, after learning some of my colleagues were
involved. It’s an innovative organisation which brings experienced people from the business world to the charitable
sector, giving charities access to skills they normally wouldn’t have.
For me, the first thing was deciding which charity to work with.
There are so many good causes out there, I really had to search my soul to decide which area I wanted to
work in. Pilotlight pitch different ideas to you, and then you decide if you want to be part of that team.
It’s a bit like joining a dating agency – they find you a charity that matches your needs. I rejected the first couple
put to me, but that helped me understand what I really wanted to do. I’m the type of person who, if
I am passionate about something, I will be able to add more value.
The commitment is that I give up three hours of my time every month and meet with usually the
charity’s CEO and help solve a challenge they might be facing. My first assignment was coaching a
woman who ran a South London charity called Music 4 All, which gave children in the area an opportunity to get
involved in radio and music production. She was a remarkable person working around the clock,
seven days a week, and what she really needed was an understanding of how to delegate.
I sat down with her and showed her how she could plan her time more effectively. But it was
probably tea and sympathy as much as anything else. I really saw the benefits of helping her first hand.
She grew in confidence and felt more at ease about getting other people involved in the day-to-day
running of the charity.
Right now I am working with CBIT – the Child Brain Injury Trust. They provide support to families with children who have
suffered a brain injury, usually after an accident. Often the child’s behaviour changes so fundamentally
that all the penotice a complete difference.
My job is to support the CEO in developing a five-year strategy for where the charity wants to be. I’m
not allowed to write the business plan or actually interfere, which can be frustrating, especially as
usually I am so hands-on. But that’s all part of the development process. And it’s also about
helping someone else gain those skills themselves. While you don’t need to be a
subject expert, you do need to have the ability to get your ideas across in a proactive and supportive way,
rather than a dogmatic ‘You will do it my way’ sort of approach.
Coutts sponsor my subscription to Pilotlight, which is great. As an organisation, we are well connected in terms of social
responsibility but I think it’s only as I have become more senior that I am aware of exactly what we do.
But now I have taken on Peregrine Banbury’s role on the Coutts Charitable Trust, I think I will see
so much more. Being a trustee is a great honour for me and will also mean I get more visibility of how Coutts
supports the charitable sector. I think the Trust represents the avenue for Coutts to support good
causes and charitable organisations, and we do that through a percentage of our profits.
I’m looking forward to working with the chairman and the other Trust members. I took on the
trustee role because I feel passionately about Coutts and believe I can help influence the Trust’s work going forward.
Coutts is an incredible place, where there are so many people doing their own bit for charity or community, in a big or small way.
It really is a special business and makes me proud that I am part of it.
www.pilotlight.org.uk