Public Has Highest Trust for Veterans Organizations

Last week, BBB Wise Giving Alliance released the latest edition of its annual Donor Trust Report. For the first time in six years of this electronic survey of 2,100 adults across the United States, veterans organizations were perceived as the most trusted charity category. Respondents were asked to assess their trust across thirteen (13) different charity categories. Using a 10-point scale with 10 being highest, 28% gave veterans organizations a score of 9 or 10.  Below is a chart showing the different charity categories and their respective percentage of high trust.

While there are many influences on what makes the public trust charities, participants selected the following top three signals of a trustworthy charity: (1) accomplishments shared by the organization, (2) third party charity evaluations, and (3) name recognition. (See page 20 of DTR.) In addition, a variety of environmental circumstances can bring attention to specific causes. For example, it is possible that the increased attention on the war in Ukraine directed public concern toward veterans causes.

The following link provides advice on making donations to veterans and military service charities and also includes a list of such groups that are BBB Accredited Charities (i.e., found to meet all 20 of the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability.)

Please note that the Donor Trust Report survey responses identify donor perceptions and are not an objective measure of the accountability of the identified charity categories. Over the many decades that BBBs have reported on publicly soliciting veterans charities, there have been scammers that sought to take advantage of the popularity of this cause. This underscores the significant role of third-party monitoring groups, such as BBB Wise Giving Alliance, in urging donors to check out charities before they donate so they can give with confidence.

In contrast to the above Donor Trust Survey results of adults in the United States, when the same questions were asked of 1,000 Canadian adults, veterans organizations were not the most trusted category, but ranked third. In Canada, not-for-profit hospitals and health organizations scored higher.

Heart of Giving Podcast

This week’s Heart of Giving Podcast features Misty Copeland, the first African American female principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre and Caryn Campbell, Executive Director of the Misty Copeland Foundation, an organization that aims to bring greater DEI to dance, especially ballet.

Recent Reports

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Feeding America
• FoodCorps
• Helping Hand for Relief and Development