July 18, 2019 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Just 24 percent of Americans said disaster-relief charities were “very clear” in explaining what they do with the donations they receive, according to a study.
Forty-one percent of respondents to the survey said the appeals are somewhat clear, 20 percent said they aren’t clear at all, and 15 percent said they weren’t sure.
The study, published by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, surveyed 2,100 people in the United States and 68 national and local disaster-relief charities.
“As we enter the hurricane season, we must ensure that appeals for relief assistance also strengthen trust in the charitable community,” said H. Art Taylor, president of the group, in a news release. “Our donor survey shows that people want to know what specific disaster-relief services they are supporting.”
Other highlights:
- The most significant effect on disaster-relief donors is that of the news media, with 43 percent of donors and 57 percent of charities citing the media as the strongest influence.
- 54 percent of donors said they would seek out information on the specific services a disaster-relief charity provides.
- 34 percent say disaster-relief funds should be spent quickly. The rest said the money could be spent over longer periods of time or had no opinion.
- When compared with older generations, younger donors were more likely to respond to celebrities raising money for disaster relief. The most frequent reasons cited for responding to a celebrity appeal were being a fan (46 percent of men and 30 percent of women) and trust in the celebrity judgment (29 percent of men, 25 percent of women). And 83 percent of people who donated to a celebrity’s disaster-relief appeal said they would have otherwise donated to other relief efforts.
- 56 percent of charities have a policy to address how to spend any money left over after completing a specific disaster response.
- Only 15 percent of charities addressing disaster relief said crowdfunding helped increase fundraising.
