Rise in trust is good news

The Times

27 May 2008

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Study into public trust and confidence in charities finds that voluntary organisations rank third behind doctors and police.

People trust charities more than they did three years ago but still think that they spend too much on salaries.

Study into Public Trust and Confidence in Charities, an Ipsos Mori poll conducted on behalf of the Charity Commission, ranks voluntary organisations behind only doctors and police.

Charities score 6.6 out of 10. Doctors top the poll on 7.5 while local councils lurk towards the bottom on 4.8, just ahead of MPs on 4.1. Newspapers are last on 3.8.

The figure for charities was 6.3 when the survey was last conducted in 2005. A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission describes the increase as “small but significant” in Third Sector (May 21), while Dame Suzi Leather, who chairs the commission, says the rise is “very good news”.

But people from black or minority ethnic backgrounds do not trust charities as much as white people do and give charities lower marks for professionalism. Attitudes to wages provide further concern: 59 per cent say that charities spend too much on salaries and administration.

A survey in March by the think-tank nfpSynergy caused considerable concern by suggesting that trust in charities had diminished. Oliver Reichardt, research manager at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, tells Charity News Alert (May 21) that the commission's methodology is robust. “It gives charities the detail to improve,” he says.

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