FRSB survey confirms trust influences 75% of people in giving
Howard Lake | 2 February 2010 | News
Trust in a charity and/or the charity sector influences 75% of people in their decision of whether to give, according to an online survey for the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) of more than 1,100 adults across Great Britain.
Fifty six per cent of respondents said that trust in the charity was an influencing factor compared to 42% who said that trust in the sector was an influencing factor.
Adrian Sargeant of Bristol Business School and Indiana University, who has researched trust and confidence in the sector for some years, said: “The results underline just how important it is for organisations to manage public trust. Demonstrating good judgement, signing up to fundraising codes of practice and being prepared to deal responsibly with complaints are all critical in building this trust, both in the organisation and the sector as a whole.”
Trust was more of an issue for younger respondents, with eight in 10 of those aged 16-24 saying it influences their giving. The influence of trust upon giving declines in direct correlation as the age of respondents increases.
The survey yielded positive reactions to the role of the FRSB, the self-regulatory body for fundraising. For example, 62% of respondents said that they would trust a charity more if it were a member of the FRSB, and 35% said that they would donate more money to a charity if they knew it was an FRSB member. The latter percentage increased to 43% amongst younger respondents (aged 16-24).
Indeed, 59% said they would trust the charity sector more if all charities were members of the FRSB.
The study was conducted in Great Britain via TNS OnLineBus, an Internet omnibus survey. A sample of 1,112 GB adults aged 16-64 were interviewed.
Interviewing was conducted by CAWI over the Internet from 27 October to 7 December 2009. The sample has been weighted to represent the adult population of Great Britain aged 16-64.
www.frsb.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.