Americans Don't Trust Charities - How Can We Change This?
I was catching up on my research this morning (Sat AM) and came across a disturbing study.
“How Americans View Charities: A Report on Charitable Confidence, 2008” by Paul C. Light.
From the Executive Summary:
Public confidence in charities remains at contemporary lows. … The percentage of Americans who said they had “a lot” of confidence in charitable organizations dropped from 25% in July 2001 to 18% in May 2002. The percentage that reported having “none at all” rose from 8% in 2001 to 17% in 2002.
A March 2008 survey … shows four patterns that should worry charitable organizations and sector leaders: Charitable confidence has not risen significantly since it hit bottom in 2003. Americans remain skeptical of charitable performance. The considerable drop in the ratings of helping people poses a serious challenge to the sector’s distinctiveness as a destination for giving and volunteering. Estimates of charitable waste remain disturbingly high.”
I talk about Thunder Mission when I’m raising money. But, I don’t talk enough about what happens with the money that we raise. My son put up the website originally and it’s full of grammar issues and mispellings. He’s now raised over $70,000 (if all promises come through) and it’s time to take the website to another level. I was going to suggest that we post the check register online. 100% of the contributions go to the program mission, so there are no hidden charges there. I was also thinking that I should make it clearer on how easy it is for people to come see what we’re doing by joining us on a trip. We go about every 2 months.
What else can we do with Thunder Mission to help restore confidence?
This study saddens me.
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On any request for money I’d put clearly where the money goes…I’m certain in David’s case all but the bare-bone expenses get covered and the rest goes directly to the charity. In today’s world that’s important to make clear.
If I can succeed at even one of the deals that this forum has given me the nudge to try you can count on me to support David in Thunder Mission. And I’d be happy to volunteer to check the website, etc. for any misspellings and grammatical errors…I see them all the time in things that I read, not looking for them, they just jump out at me!
Thank you for your response.
I think this is a cause I could get passionate about. What about some kind of “seal of approval” for charities that submit to an organization (non profit) that reviews their records and proves that there is a rigid compliance to program first, benefits second (if that).
And supersizing it, what if we created an organization of business people that volunteered their time and talent to create infrastructure for non profits so that they don’t have to continually reinvent the wheel with admin, not their best talent anyway?
Masterminding ideas on how to do this, change it? Anyone else passionate about this?
Yes absolutely, it’s an issue I’m very concerned about. There are several good websites/resources online that I use regularly. They publish their ratings and the criteria used to arrive at them.
Charity Navigator Charity Navigator Online
American Institute of Philanthopy Charity Watch
The Better Business Bureau has resources available also. giving.org