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The Importance of Trust to the Funding of Humanitarian Work

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Humanitarian Work Psychology

Abstract

There may be a natural reluctance to criticize non-profit organizations, as any attempt to do good for humanity is surely better than no attempt at all. However, ‘doing good poorly’ may undermine the public’s trust in a specific non-profit organization, and in the non-profit sector in general. Many circumstances, including inefficiency of operations, failure to achieve outcomes, and fraud, can lead to the public forming the opinion that a non-profit organization is not doing a good job. A failure to develop and maintain the public’s trust may lead to long-term difficulties for non-profit organizations to raise sufficient funds to support their work. In this chapter, the development of the public’s trust in non-profit organizations is discussed in terms of organizational ‘accountability’ and ‘efficiency’. The chapter discusses literature and describes research which offers suggestions on how non-profit organizations can build and maintain a trusting relationship with the public.

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Authors
  1. Christopher D. B. Burt
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Massey University, New Zealand

    Stuart C. Carr

  2. Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

    Malcolm MacLachlan

  3. University College London, UK

    Adrian Furnham

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© 2012 Christopher D. B. Burt

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Burt, C.D.B. (2012). The Importance of Trust to the Funding of Humanitarian Work. In: Carr, S.C., MacLachlan, M., Furnham, A. (eds) Humanitarian Work Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137015228_14

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