LEVELS OF TRUST REMAIN CONSISTENT
DESPITE RECENT REPORTS ABOUT CHARITIES
9 March 2018
Around half of people across the UK still believe charities are trustworthy in spite of recent reports about charities, research for the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has found.
CAF tracks levels of trust in charities on a monthly basis. A regular poll was carried out by YouGov on behalf of CAF between 13th-19th February, the week after stories about the actions of aid workers in Haiti first appeared in the media, asking to what extent people believed charities were trustworthy.
The research showed that levels of trust in charities were consistent with those in previous months, with around half of those surveyed (49%) agreeing that most charities were trustworthy. This is consistent with levels of trust in charities recorded since CAF began researching trust in May 2016.
Overall, 21% of those surveyed disagreed that charities were trustworthy.
According to CAF’s 2017 annual UK Giving report, at an overall level, half of the population (50%) believed that most charities were trustworthy across the whole of 2016. The most recent polling for mid-February, therefore, shows that trust is stable.
A total of 1,083 adults took part in the online poll, which is part of CAF’s monthly polling that makes up the UK Giving report – the largest study into charitable giving in the UK.
CAF will release its 2018 annual report on UK Giving in March, which looks at individual giving across the UK during 2017 and provides insight into who gives to charity. CAF’s UK Giving report is the leading study of charitable behaviour in the UK, and has been published annually by CAF since 2004.
Sir John Low, Chief Executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said: “People in the UK are incredibly generous and consistently give around £10bn to charity per year.
“Nothing is more important to charities than the trust of those who support them and make it possible to carry out the work they do, as well as the trust of those who rely upon them. Charities know they cannot take this for granted.
“One of the reasons why we think levels of trust remain high is that people in Britain are really motivated to support causes they care about and that touch their lives in some way. That desire to help others underpins our record as one of the most generous countries on earth and is something we always need to protect.”
For more information, or to arrange an interview, please call the Charities Aid Foundation media office on 03000 123 286 or email media@cafonline.org
Notes to editors
- CAF asked: “To what extent, if at all, do you agree or disagree that most charities are trustworthy?”
- The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is one of Europe’s largest charitable foundations, which helps more than 250,000 people and 3,000 businesses give to good causes, while offering financial services to support charities.
- CAF has been producing the UK Giving report since 2004, and has been tracking giving in the UK for several decades and since 2016 has been interviewing c.1,000 respondents per month.