October 13, 2005 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Public confidence in charitable organizations has yet to rebound from the decline experienced following the attacks of September 11, 2001, says a new report from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Only 19 percent of the 1,820 Americans interviewed by phone this summer for the study said charities were doing a very good job running their programs and services. Slightly more than 10 percent of those interviewed said charities were spending their money wisely, while 66 percent said charities waste money, and nearly half said charities pay their leaders too much.
While 15 percent of those polled said they had a great deal of confidence in charities, 32 percent said they had no, or not much, confidence. About half of the people interviewed said they had only a fair amount of confidence in charities.
The results are in line with what similar surveys have found annually since 2001 and suggest that the public’s confidence in nonprofit organizations remains weakened by the controversies that surrounded the distribution of relief funds following the 2001 terrorists attacks.
A report on the poll findings said that charities have been negatively affected by scandals and abuses in the business world and government.
“The charitable sector has become the Velcro sector,” says Paul C. Light, the New York University professor who conducted the study. “It doesn’t really matter where the scandal occurs, the charity sector is going to be affected.”
Investment Needed
The report also cautions charities against cutting spending on technology and other management and overhead expenses as a means to gain public trust. “You can’t increase donor confidence in your ability to spend money wisely unless you can show that you have made some investments to help you do so,” Mr. Light says.
The college plans to conduct another similar survey this fall to learn what impact the massive charitable response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have on public confidence in nonprofits groups.
“I don’t think charity confidence is going to surge,” Mr. Light says. “My hunch is that it will remain the same or go slightly down.”
The report stresses that charities need to do a better job of producing and disseminating measurable results, and Mr. Light says this advice is crucial for the organizations responding to the hurricane disasters.
“Groups raising relief money have to be quite clear on their home pages, both where the money is going, and how it’s going to make a difference in the lives of victims,” Mr. Light says. “Donors want to know, Are you just sheltering people, or are you going to help them get a job and get them back on their feet? This is not just about meals today, but how people are going to eat tomorrow.”
The report, entitled “Rebuilding Public Confidence in Charitable Organizations,” is available for free on the center’s Web’s site, http://wagner.nyu.edu.
