25 years of the CRA – spotlight on: Robin Osterley

Our Chief Executive Robin Osterley joined the Charity Retail Association in 2015, putting his 20 years of experience of running associations in the third sector to use in charity retail – a sector he’s always been passionate about.

After 8 years as Chief Executive, Robin’s favourite part of the role remains attending shop openings – seeing the optimism, enthusiasm and excitement created by opening a new shop in a community is, he says, the most fun he has during the working year.

Robin sees one of the CRA’s main purposes as acting as a facilitator, supporting our members to do the best they can by disseminating best practice and helping them to be their best selves in charity retail. The CRA also plays an important role in making raising money for good causes as easy as possible for our members by ensuring there are no intentional or unintentional barriers that get in the way, as well as providing networking and meeting opportunities that give our members the chance to learn from one another, which in turn, allows the CRA to learn from everyone.

Asked what he would like to see the CRA do in the next 25 years, Robin has no greater ambition than for the CRA to continue to provide the same dedication to supporting and helping our members, in what is undoubtedly going to be a very shifting retail landscape over the next 25 years.

In Robin’s own words about his role as Chief Executive:

“I’ve been doing the job eight years and I’m incredibly lucky to have it! Whilst the job has a huge amount of variety and excitement, and I love sitting at the top table with politicians and influential people, the most inspirational part of the job is always when I meet our members and hear their passion and commitment for the cause. They do such fantastic work, and it is a real privilege to be able to be helpful to them and promote the astonishing sector that is charity retail.

“It’s a rare privilege to be in a position where we can help so many people and so many organisations in so many different ways, and I think our existence does genuinely help the sector thrive and move on. I am blessed with a fantastically hardworking and effective staff team who really have the success of charity retail in their hearts, and we are very grateful to them for all of this work.”