A survey commissioned by the Scottish Charity Regulator OSCR to see how current attitudes towards charities compare to 2014, has revealed strong public support.
Independent research organisation Progressive surveyed over 1,000 members of the public, asking whether and how they support charities; what levels of interest and support they have for charities; what issues of concern they had; and how aware they were of OSCR and its work.
The survey reveals trust in local charities to be higher than in national and international charities, with trust decreasing with geographic scale. While Scottish, UK and international charities saw small decreases in trust, trust in local charities stayed constant.
81% of respondents stated that trust is important when deciding how much they donate to charity and 88% stating that knowing that a charity was regulated would increase their trust in a charity either ‘somewhat’ or ‘greatly’.
Trust was also higher amongst women, younger people and higher socio-economic groups. Younger respondents were more likely to report an increase in trust than their older counterparts.
In terms of concerns, that money is going to good causes, rather than on staff salaries, was the overriding concern for the Scottish public. Concerns related specifically to fundraising were dominated by an adverse reaction to aggressive fundraising tactics.
Other key points include:
- A quarter of the population volunteer and 9 out of 10 donate time, money or goods to charities.
- Most people support charities where they have a personal connection.
- A small overall decrease in trust was recorded, with negative media reports a contributing factor. However, overall trust remains strong and 8% of the public say that their trust has increased.
- Public trust in charities is strongest among those with awareness of the charity regulator and those with the highest levels of interest in charities.
David Robb, OSCR’s chief executive, said:
“It’s reassuring to see that public trust in charities remains high, but clearly there are steps we can all take to reinforce this further. For the regulator, it’s about ensuring greater transparency, support and scrutiny, which we’re delivering through our new Targeted Regulation programme. For charities, it’s about publicising the work they do and the impact they have. For the public, it’s checking charitable status on the Register and reassuring themselves about the organisations they are looking to support.”
The survey results echo the DSC’s response to this week’s Charity Commission research, which reported the lowest level of public confidence and trust in UK charities since 2005.
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