Research into public trust in charities and trustees' experience of their role 2024
Annual Charity Commission research on public trust in charities and what trustees think about their role and their regulator.
Applies to England and Wales
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Details
Public trust headlines
Trust in charities remains high. Almost 60% of people have high trust in charities, which continue to be the second most trusted of the social institutions we benchmark against.
Several factors continue to influence public trust, including whether people can see that charities are maximising spend on the end cause, making a real difference and operating ethically.
Recent media coverage has mostly had a positive influence on trust. For some the media can lead to distrust, but most people are cautious to not let the actions of one charity influence how they feel about others.
Most people want financial information about charities to be available. However, not all would access it; knowing it is available can be enough. Seeing that a charity is registered continues to reassure the public, although most people don’t check the register.
The proportion of people who said they gave to charity in the year declined to 47%. In contrast, those who said they had received financial or similar help from a charity rose to 8%.
Trustee research headlines
Most charity trustees are aware of, and confident about, their main responsibilities. There are some gaps around managing conflicts of interest, overseeing finances, and ensuring their charity is up to date with financial reporting.
Trustees who regularly use our guidance show more knowledge of their responsibilities than those who don’t.
A quarter of trustees say they regularly use our guidance. Those who don’t, mostly feel they don’t need it that regularly (but this is more common amongst longer serving trustees).
2 in 5 trustees say their charity encountered a banking issue in the last year; up to 15% said it was still not resolved. We are using this data to inform discussions with the banking sector.
Most trustees who had contact with the Commission say we treated them fairly; only 2% said unfairly. Trustees think the Commission is getting the balance right in terms of dealing with wrongdoing and giving supportive advice and guidance.
About the reports
This research was conducted on behalf of the Charity Commission by our research partner, BMG.
The research was conducted in Spring 2024.