Level of trust in charities is at its lowest for almost a decade, new research claims
Scottish people trust charities more than English and Welsh people do, new polling has found.
Research consultancy nfpSynergy’s latest survey into public trust of organisations found only 52% of those living south of the border trust charities "quite a lot" or "a great deal" compared to 63% of Scots.
However, the bad news for charities in Scotland and the rest of the UK is that public trust in charities overall has fallen to its lowest level in almost a decade.
The poll found just 53% of people living in the UK have a high level of trust in charities – down 3% on last year, down 13% on 2013 and the worst result it has seen since 2007.
Nearly a third of people said they have “not much” trust in charities, while one in 10 trust charities “very little”.
These are sobering figures for all of those who work in the sector, not least those who say ‘Crisis, what crisis?'
Although a relatively small sample figure of just 1000 was used, the results are another blow for the sector which has been battered by widespread negative media stories this summer including the demise of Kids Company, and the coverage of the death of Olive Cooke.
NfpSynergy’s Joe Saxton, said those working in the sector need to wake up to the reality that public trust is falling.
“These are sobering figures for all of those who work in the sector, not least those who say "Crisis, what crisis?",” he said.
“Worse still they were researched just before much of the recent high profile press coverage of the sector.
“The research does emphasise that we can take nothing for granted about people’s trust in the sector.
“All parts of the sector most work continuously to build trust in charities and to explain our work.
“Equally important we have to listen to what the public and donors tell us what annoys or concerns them about charities, which will probably reduce their levels of trust.
“We can’t just tell the public how modern charities are, we also have to listen to how they would like them to be.”
The charity confidence findings were part of a wider nfpSynergy survey ranking the perceived trustworthiness of many of the UK’s organisations.
It found the armed forces were the UK’s most trusted organisation and placed charities in eighth place, behind the police but ahead of the BBC.
Political parties were at the bottom of the list.
