What’s driving the public trust gap between nonprofits and philanthropy?
Data from Independent Sector shows public trust in nonprofits holding steady while trust in philanthropy declines. Find out what’s behind this trend and what nonprofits can do to maintain public trust.
For the past seven years, Independent Sector has measured the levels of public trust toward different parts of American society, with an emphasis on understanding our relationship with the public, private, and nonprofit systems that govern, influence, and wield power over peoples’ lives. The Trust in Nonprofits and Philanthropy study has always focused on curiosity: We’re interested less in the “what” and more in the “how” and “why.” This research has shown that public trust in the most powerful arms of the American system—the federal government, corporations, wealthy individuals, and the courts—has declined over the past seven years, while trust in nonprofits has remained relatively high and steady.
Similar to recent years, a significant gap persists between trust in nonprofits and trust in philanthropy (corporate giving, private foundations, and giving from high-net-worth individuals). In this year’s survey, 29% of respondents indicated high levels of trust in philanthropy, a drop of 4 percentage points from 2025. How can we interpret these diverging trends, especially considering the current economic and political landscape?
Direct service nonprofits have a trust advantage
When asked how much they trusted specific types of nonprofits to “do what is right,” two-thirds of respondents indicated high levels of trust in human services organizations (67%), followed by animal/wildlife nonprofits (62%) and health organizations (58%). At the bottom of the list were civic organizations (41%), the only type of nonprofit that saw a statistically significant drop (down 4 percentage points) from 2025. This shift is likely attributable to political polarization charged by a highly consequential election year.
When we dig deeper, we see that approval for human service nonprofits varies greatly by the services they provide and the communities they serve. Respondents were most likely to approve of nonprofit involvement in providing counseling to survivors of abuse (78%), followed by providing drug addiction treatment and (71%), and providing community integration services for those leaving prison (68%).
Notably, support for nonprofit involvement in providing community services to legal immigrants saw the greatest growth in support (+7% over 2025). Taken together, these results may indicate growing public support for nonprofit solutions to difficult societal issues, especially when government or private-sector solutions are perceived to be inadequate, ineffective, or nonexistent.
Growing distrust of wealth is driving the trust gap between nonprofits and philanthropy
A persistent concern highlighted by this report is the ongoing gap between public trust in nonprofits and philanthropy. The percentage of Americans reporting high levels of trust in philanthropy, 29%, is the lowest since Independent Sector began conducting this survey in 2021. However, this gap should be seen as part of a larger trend: Americans are expressing diminished confidence in all sectors associated with concentrated power and wealth, including big business, the federal government, high-net-worth individuals, and the media.
When participants were asked which sector they trusted to carry out different governance responsibilities, nonprofits scored an average of 15 points higher than corporations on key metrics including legal compliance, community accountability, and responsible use of resources.
This gap in trust is also seen in public trust for nonprofit accountability practices: Including community representatives on an organization’s board is nearly twice as likely to positively impact trust than including corporate CEOs. In combination with other insights in this report, we can conclude that it is the perceived independence of nonprofits from profit motives and wealth that drives stronger trust in their integrity and impact.
Concerns about AI risks outweigh confidence in benefits
This year, we asked respondents questions about the ways nonprofits use AI technology. Seventy-six percent agreed that nonprofits should fully disclose when and how they use AI, and more respondents said a nonprofit’s use of AI would make them less likely to trust that organization (37%) than more likely to trust them (22%). By a gap of 10 percentage points or more, respondents indicated they believe AI is more harmful than helpful in helping nonprofits detect fraud, measure program impact, allocate resources, and operate within ethical guidelines.
Community engagement and transparency drive trust
As any community organization will tell you, connection is an essential part of trust. In 2026, 60% of respondents who reported engaging directly with a nonprofit in the past year expressed higher levels of trust in nonprofits. The activities that drove the largest increase in trust were all highly participatory: taking part in nonprofit advocacy efforts, attending a demonstration organized by a nonprofit, and volunteering.
Transparency is also key: Nearly three-quarters of respondents indicated they’re more likely to trust a nonprofit that’s transparent on where their funding comes from and how it’s allocated.
In a phrase, this research demonstrates nonprofits earn public trust by doing: We build trust when we show up consistently, engage communities from the get-go, and report the outcomes of our work transparently and honestly. In a moment characterized by growing public dissatisfaction in existing systems of power, nonprofits maintain that trust by continuing to center the impact of our work on the lives of the people and communities they serve.
Photo credit: FG Trade Latin/Getty Images
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