Religiously Affiliated People More Likely To Trust Charities, Be Open To Charitable Solicitation
According to new research from BBB’s Give.org, Atheist, Agnostic, and unaffiliated participants are less likely to report high trust in charities, report contributing over the past three year, or say that they are open to charity solicitation. For example, among the religiously affiliated (including Catholic, Hindus, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, and Protestant participants) 28.0% say they highly trust charities. By comparison, only 10.5% say the same among Agnostics, Atheists and the Unaffiliated.
The standards-based, charity-evaluation group today released the Give.org Donor Trust Report 2024: Trust and Giving Attitudes Across U.S. Regions and Religious Affiliation. The report, a survey of more than 2,200 adults in the United States (and a separate section with more than 1,000 adults in Canada), offers a glimpse at how participants with different self-reported religious affiliation (and from different U.S. regions) vary in their charity trust and giving attitudes.
Atheist, Unaffiliated, and Agnostic participants are least likely to say they would like charities to approach them more. For example, 1.1% of Atheists, 5.4% of Unaffiliated, and 6.6% of Agnostics say they would like charities to approach them more, as compared to 13.5% overall.
“We want to better understand how declining religious participation affects the charitable sector. Our latest report shows that religious affiliation is associated with higher trust in charities, including secular charity categories.” said H. Art Taylor, President and CEO of BBB’s Give.org, “For charities, these results signal an incentive to create community around their cause, for both religious and secular supporters.”
BBB’s Give.org urges donors to give thoughtfully by taking the time to check out charities before making a donation and to visit Give.org to verify if a charity meets the 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability.
Additional report highlights include:
- Atheists, Agnostics, and Unaffiliated participants are less likely to report high trust in charities than participants with other religious affiliations. For example, 4.6% of Atheists, 13.2% of Unaffiliated, and 8.4% of Agnostics report high trust in charities, as compared to 22.1% overall (See p.13 of DTR 2024)
- Respondents were asked to assess their trust across 13 different charity categories. Participants identifying as Unaffiliated, Atheist, or Agnostic tend to be less trusting of different charity categories. For example, 9.2% of Atheists, 8.4% of Unaffiliated, and 9.4% of Agnostics report high trust for civil rights and community action organizations, as compared to 18.2% overall. (See p. 14 and 16)
- Atheists, Unaffiliated, and Agnostics participants are most likely to report no contributions over the past 3 years. 29.9% of Atheists, 29.7% of Unaffiliated, and 23.6% of Agnostics report making no contributions over the past 3 years, as compared to 19.3% overall. (See p. 27)
Source: BBB Wise Giving Alliance
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.
