Nonprofit Trustworthiness

Nonprofit Trust Survey

Conducted in October 2008 and managed by the Center for Survey Research at Indiana University, the Nonprofit Trust Survey asked 536 Indiana residents whether they trust nonprofits and charities in their communities to do what is right just about all the time, most of the time, some of the time, or hardly ever. We asked the same question about state government in Indianapolis, local government, the federal government and businesses and corporations in their community. We also asked respondents about their political orientations and about a broad range of socio-demographic characteristics.

There are significant differences in the extent to which people trust the five types of institutions examined in the survey and Indiana residents trust nonprofits to do what is right much more than other key institutions
Despite these differences, there appears to be underlying trust tendencies – those that trust one of the five institutions also generally trust the other four
People that have more resources or connections tend to trust these types of institutions more so than those who don't have such resources and connections.

Are Nonprofits Trustworthy?

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Nonprofit Trustworthiness

Nonprofit Trust Survey

Key Findings

Indiana Nonprofits Project resources