PUBLIC trust in charities has bounced back from the effect of scandals in 2018 to succeed in its highest level in ten years, recent research from the Charity Commission has found.
The report, published on Friday, relies on a weighted online survey of 4599 respondents, and evaluation of information from registered charities in England and Wales. The research, conducted by BMG, also used qualitative data from three focus groups meeting earlier this 12 months.
Overall trust in charities peaked in 2014, with a mean rating of 6.7 out of ten (ten meaning the general public had complete trust; one, the equivalent of no trust). This dipped to five.5 in 2018, when a crisis over allegations of sexual abuse within the aid sector led to the Charity Commission launching a proper inquiry (News, 16 February 2018).
This level increased to six.2 in 2020 and has been regular since, with a mean rating of 6.5 recorded in 2024. This 12 months, the research found that 58 per cent of the general public had “high trust” in charities — a rating of between six and ten.
More than one third recorded “medium trust” (between 4 and 6), and nine per cent recorded “low trust” (a rating of 1 to a few).
This rating placed charities second within the list of most-trusted organisations, behind doctors (7.1) and ahead of banks (5.9), police (5.7) and social services (5.2). MPs and government ministers were lowest on the list, each with a rating of three.4, just under newspapers with a rating of 4.0.
There has been little or no change to this rating since 2022.
The report also found that men were more prone to have low trust in charities (10 per cent vs. seven per cent of ladies). People educated to degree level or higher were more prone to have high trust (65 per cent vs. 57 per cent for those educated below degree level, and 39 per cent for those with no qualifications.
People who’ve recently heard about charities within the news were more prone to have high trust (64 per cent vs. 54 per cent that had not). This was also the case for individuals who had heard of the Charity Commission (63 per cent vs. 52 per cent).
Focus groups found that low trust in charities stemmed from the media, contact with charities, or disagreement with the actions or goals of a charity. High trust was “more implicit” until wrongdoing was uncovered.
The report explains: “Media coverage is especially influential in resulting in distrust in charities, but generally the general public are cautious to not let the actions of 1 charity influence how they feel about others. However, for any charities where the media uncovers wrongdoing, there’s little they’ll do to redeem their fame; once sullied the trust is lost.”
Transparency was a key driver of trust: financial transparency and who’s running the charity was particularly crucial. One respondent said: “Trust relies on visibly seeing what the charity does.”
Just multiple third (34 per cent) of respondents said that they’d seen charities within the news recently, about half of whom felt more positive about charities because of this. Negative stories, nonetheless, stuck within the minds of focus-group participants.
Fewer people were aware of the Charity Commission in 2024 (47 per cent), in comparison with in 2020 (53 per cent). “Those which are older and live in less deprived areas are likely to be more prone to have heard in regards to the Charity Commission,” the report said. “Surprisingly, those belonging to the Untrusting and Uninvolved and Disengaged Donors segments are likely to have higher awareness than average, despite having low engagement/involvement.”
In a multiple-choice query in regards to the role of the Charity Commission, most who claimed to understand it well “have a superb grasp of the role, although some think it fines charities or campaigns on their behalf”.
People aged 16 – 34 (11 per cent) were the almost definitely to pick out only incorrect answers in regards to the role of the Charity Commission.
A charity being registered increased public confidence in its standards of ethics, funds, operation, and impact.
The chief executive of the Charity Commission, David Holdsworth, said that the outcomes were encouraging. “Charities collectively are once more firmly trusted by the general public. . . But there isn’t a room for complacency, for charities or for us as regulator. The recent findings point to the difficult financial environment charities are operating in, with a decline within the number of individuals giving to charity, whilst the high cost of living appears to be driving more people to access charity services.
“In these financially difficult times, charities must proceed to point out people how they deliver on their purpose, including how every penny makes a positive difference.”
