The whole story?
A recent survey of the public perception of charities indicates a gap between people's perception of the sector (e.g. how it works, what it does and its size) and the reality
A recent survey of the public perception of charities indicates a gap between people’s perception of sector (e.g. how it works, what it does and its size) and the reality.
The findings emerged from an online poll conducted by YouGov Plc for ACEVO from a sample of 2065 adults at the end of June 2009. Over half the respondents (61 per cent) thought charities spent more than 20 per cent of their funds on overheads, when the average ratio is 12.5 per cent. They also had little idea of how many individuals work in the charity sector or of how big the sector is. And there was confusion about what organisations were or were not charities (for example over 20 per cent assumed that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is a charity when in fact it is a public body).
Stephen Bubb, ACEVO’s CEO, sees this as a problem in the making if not addressed: ‘It is a real worry that public attitudes and understanding of charities lag so far behind the reality. I think we as a sector have been complicit in the widening of that gap by not being as upfront as possible about how we have developed, for fear of reduced donations or criticism. We have nothing to be ashamed of and should be loud and proud about how the charity sector has developed. If we are not, there is a real danger that the high levels of trust and confidence the general public has in us will be eroded and fundraising may suffer.’
The Charity Commission agrees that the sector has an ongoing task in raising awareness of its work and scope amongst the public. Rosie Chapman, director of policy and effectiveness explained: ‘We are encouraged by our most recent survey into public levels of trust and confidence in the sector, which climbed again in 2008 to 66 per cent. We hope that as the public benefit reporting requirement is demonstrated by more and more charities, the impact of their work and openness will become ever more apparent to the wider public in general’.
The Edelman Trust Barometer (based on a telephone survey of 4475 media informed adults in 20 countries on five continents) reports NGOs command the most trust in every region except Asia Pacific (but this is growing fast as these markets emerge), beating business, media and government. Around the world they are the only institution trusted by more than 50 per cent of informed publics.
Laurence Evans, president of StrategyOne who conducts the survey for Edelman told Caritas ‘NGOs can’t afford to work in isolation however – since NGOs are not expected to singly solve global issues. Two-thirds of informed publics globally believe that business and governments need to partner with third parties, like NGOs to solve these.’
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
Andrew Davies, 18/09/2009
Hear hear, i agree entirely with Stephen Bubb the public sector do, kind of, miss understand the idea of how things work and how things have developed from the days of cakes and jumble sales in the church hall to pro celeb football matches at wembley stadium.So how do you explain to the general public that actually what charities do is not begging but is in fact business without which tens of thousands of poeple would not receive the help and support that they do.