How do charity regulators build public trust?

Abstract

Public trust serves as an important foundation for the charity sector, but has been diminishing in many countries. Charity regulation exists to promote public trust in charities, but we know little about how it is implemented by regulators to build public trust. This research examines regulators’ efforts to build public trust in charities by promoting and implementing regulation that increases accountability and transparency requirements. A legal perspective on regulation and trust (Colombo, 2010) is combined with institutional work theory (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006) to analyse interviews with New Zealand charity regulators and standard setters. The findings detail regulators’ reflexive trust‐building processes and practices and reveal a complex and challenging trust‐building dynamic among regulators, charities and the general public. Regulators’ efforts are revealed to demonstrate a ‘hybrid’ approach to regulation as they expand beyond policing charities’ regulatory compliance, educating charities on how to improve their public accountability and investigating public concerns about charity wrongdoing to also engage in proactive modes of trust‐building that directly target the public. Based on these findings, implications are suggested for regulators in other jurisdictions who seek to build public trust in charities.

Charities, altruism and becoming business-like: tensions and contradictions

“…But there is also a preoccupation with more novel research with unusual topics such as trust and crises. On trust, there has been a focus on whether there is trust in charities (Yang and Northcott, 2021), the relationship of trust and accountability in charities (Yates et al , 2021), the process of rebuilding lost trust in charities (Hyndman et al , 2021) and the ways in which accounting reports may enhance trust in charities (Guo et al , 2023). On crises, there has been a particular focus on one particular crisis – the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Accountability of Alfamart Donation Funds Based on Consumer Perspectives

“…The success of fundraising efforts heavily relies on the level of trust from the community. If donation organizers engage in irresponsible actions in managing the donations, it will hurt public trust and may jeopardize the sustainability of the donation program [2,3]. The debate surrounding the role of donation organizers often revolves around concerns about the lack of accountability of these institutions [4] This is evident in several cases related to the accountability of donation funds, such as the one involving a consumer who filed a lawsuit against the Alfamart minimarket chain for not providing transparent information about the donations received from the public.…”