Global Survey Finds Declining Trust in Nonprofits

Public faith in nonprofit organizations dropped to a five-year low in an annual international poll of attitudes toward major institutions, with respondents criticizing nongovernmental groups as increasingly money-focused, the Thomson Reuters Foundation writes. Trust in nonprofits declined from 66 percent to 63 percent in the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveyed 33,000 people in 27 countries for their views on NGOs, government, media, and business.

Nonprofits remain the most trusted of the four institutions and their rank improved in the United States and seven other surveyed countries, but in 19 countries respondents trusted them the same as or less than they did last year. "There's a feeling that NGOs are now acting too much like business. They're too focused on fundraising and the money," said Ed Williams, Britain and Ireland CEO for public relations firm Edelman, which has conducted the survey for 15 years.