Donor Confidence and Charity Management
Canadians’ confidence in the charitable sector is higher than ever, nearly eight in ten Canadians (78%) say they’re confident in the charities and not-for-profit organizations that make up the charitable sector (12% very/66% somewhat), marking a 5-point increase since 2015.
The charitable sector continues to elicit significantly more confidence from Canadians than either the private sector (67%, up four points) or the public sector (60%).
While confidence may have improved, underlying views on charitable organizations have remained stable over time. Three in four Canadians (75%) continue to agree that charities play an important role in society to address the needs not being met by the government, the public sector or the private sector, rating their agreement a 6 to 10 out of 10.
At the same time, six in ten – agree that charities in Canada are trustworthy (61%). Similarly, six in ten (63%) agree that most charities in Canada act responsibly with the donations they receive.
The survey presented Canadians with four factors and asked them how important they were in evaluating a charity’s success and effectiveness. Overwhelming majorities say all the factors tested in the survey are important. But a stronger level of importance is placed on the charity’s ability to achieve its mission and goals (97%; 69% very/27% somewhat) and the extent of the charity’s impact (96%. 63% very/33% somewhat) than on charities’ spending on managing its operations (93%; 57% very/36% somewhat) or on fundraising (91%; 46% very/45% somewhat).
When it comes to what charities say about how much they spend on overhead costs such as fundraising, supplies, and administration versus the amount they spend on the cause or programs they support, Canadians are more divided. A growing majority (58%, up 6 points) still trust charities, either for the most part (52%) or completely (6%).
However, about a third of Canadians (34%, down 4 points) are less trusting, indicating that charities overstate how much they spend on the cause or programs (24%), or that charities are being intentionally misleading (10%).
About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 10 and October 17, 2017, on behalf of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. For this survey, a sample of 1,500 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
