DCH 15 Home Office
NOTE
on public views and perceptions of charities
for the
Joint Committee on the draft Charities
Bill
1. The Strategy Unit report[23]
made a number of recommendations to maintain and increase public
trust and confidence in charities. Charities often rely on income
from fundraising or the work of volunteers, and rely on a good
reputation to remain in business. Public trust and confidence
in charities are therefore of vital importance to the charitable
sector.
2. In 1998, the National Council for Voluntary
Organisations (NCVO) conducted research into the public's perception
of charities.[24]
The research included a quantitative survey of over 1,000 adults.
Its main findings were:
- A high level of respect for charities (over 90%
of respondents agreed).
- 70% agreed that "one of the most important
things about charities is the values they hold".
- Charities are viewed as playing an essential
role in society, in satisfying unmet needs (89% of respondents
agreed).
- Charities are positively distinguished from businesses
or the state. Their non-profit making and 'caring' motives help
with this distinction.
- 83% of survey respondents said that it was very
important/important that charities are not profit-making.
- 76% said it was very important/important that
charities are independent of government; 67% that they are independent
of business; 82% that they paid lower taxes.
3. In 1999 the Charity Commission and MORI conducted
a survey of the public's attitudes towards charities and the Charity
Commission:
- 89% of respondents had not received help from
a charity in the preceding five years although 92% of respondents
claimed to have supported a charity in the preceding two years.
- The most popular ways of giving were street collections
(66%), and door to door collections (57%). Sponsoring someone
for charity was the next most popular.
- 73% of respondents agreed that there needs to
be tighter control over the laws governing charities' financial
affairs.
- Unprompted, only 15% of respondents knew that
the Charity Commission was responsible for the regulation of charities,
although this rose to 42% when respondents were shown its name.
4. More recently (in 2001/02 and 2003/04), the
consultants nfp Synergy have conducted research into public confidence
and the public's concerns about charities[25]
& [26].
5. The 2002 nfp Synergy research report examined
public and political attitudes towards charities. Its main findings
were:
- Basic levels of trust in charities are high (with
over 55% of respondents trusting charities more than either government
or businesses).
- In telephone surveys, the research found that
over 70% of respondents said there were no other kinds of organisations
that they would trust above charities.
- When prompted with a list of ten types of organisations
in the postal survey, charities came second only to churches as
'most trustworthy'.
- Only 5% of respondents would not trust UK charities
to spend donations wisely.
6. The research on public concerns regarding
charities was published in 2004, and was based on 984 respondents
representative of the general population. Its main findings were
that concerns could be divided into two groups; a) spending concerns
- i.e. the amount of a donation that goes to the charity or cause,
and b) fundraising techniques:
- Spending concerns topped the list; the main concerns
were about the amount of a donation that goes to the charity or
cause, and the costs of administration and staff salaries.
- Concerns over fundraising techniques (in descending
order) were about direct mail, telephone calls at home, and door
to door collection.
- Face to face fundraising on the street was mentioned
as a concern by only 12% of respondents.
7. There has also been research commissioned
into people's perceptions of individual charities. Nfp Synergy's
Charity Awareness Monitor, now in its sixth year, tracks the public's
awareness of charities every two months. Its most recent results,
for March 2004 indicated that charities such as the NSPCC, RSPCA,
and Macmillan Cancer Relief were readily identified as charities
by over 90% of respondents. Responses for pressure groups such
as Amnesty International and Greenpeace indicated that over 50%
of respondents incorrectly thought that they were charities.
There was further confusion over Church of England bodies (less
than 50% of respondents correctly identified them as charities),
the British Museum (only 23% correctly identified it as a charity),
and Eton College (only 13% correctly identified it as a charity).
8. The two nfp Synergy research reports are attached
at Annex A and Annex B for information (with permission of nfp
Synergy).
Home Office
June 2004
23 Chapter 6 of "Private Action, Public Benefit;
a Review of Charities and the Wider Not-For-Profit Sector",
Strategy Unit (September 2002) Back
24
"Blurred Vision: Public trust in charities", National
Council for Voluntary Organisations Research Quarterly Issue 1,
(January 1998). Back
25
"Trusted but misunderstood; public and political attitudes
to charities, fundraising and regulation", nfp Synergy (November
2002) Back
26
"Disgusted or delighted: What does concern the public about
charities?", nfp Synergy (March 2004). Back
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