UK public nearly twice more likely to trust hairdressers than charities
The UK public is nearly three times more likely to trust a doctor (69%) than a charity (26%), according to a new research conducted for volunteering organisation Pro Bono Economics by FTI Consulting.
In itself, this might not seem especially surprising: when it comes down to it, we have no option but to put our trust in doctors, teachers (trusted by 56% of the public), scientists (52%), police (44%) and judges (38%) – all professions that score highly in the survey. But charities (26%) now rate well below hairdressers (45%) in the trust stakes, with four in ten people (45%) saying that they were cautious of charities, 18% suspicious of them, and 10% explicitly distrusting them.1
Why, then, is trust in charities at an all-time low? Julia Grant, Chief Executive, Pro Bono Economics, throws some light on the situation:
“Over the last 12 months, much has been made of the apparently sharp practices used by certain charities to attract donations. In response to this criticism, charities have vowed to stamp out these methods, and are aiming to increase transparency with improved reporting. But transparency does not equal trustworthiness, nor does it of itself prove that an organisation is taking the right decisions or making the intended impact. Just look at the way things have gone in the financial sector. Although reporting has been ramped up, the survey found that only 9% of the public trusts bankers, which suggests that the world of finance is viewed as no more trustworthy than it was before the 2008 crash.
“The only way for charities to rebuild any trust they have lost is to demonstrate their impact on society with solid independent economic evidence. They are accountable to the public, who are the people who support them, so they need to communicate their impact in a way that engages with the public as stakeholders. Essentially, charities’ future stability and sustainability relies on their capacity to prove the importance of their work.”
