While public trust has been relatively steady since 2017, overall donor participation rates continued to decline in 2020, a report from BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s Give.org finds.

Based on a survey of more than twenty-one hundred adults in the United States and more than a thousand adults in Canada, the report, Give.org Donor Trust Report 2021: Profiles in Charity Trust and Giving (60 pages, PDF), found that the share of respondents who say they “highly trust” charities has ranged between 16.8 percent and 19 percent over the last four years. Among the thirteen issue areas analyzed in the study, civil rights and community organizations and environmental groups saw an increase in the share of respondents expressing “high trust” in 2020, while religious institutions and police and firefighter organizations saw a decline. In eight of the issue areas, the share of respondents giving to a nonprofit in that area fell in 2020, with youth development organizations seeing the largest drop, from 18.3 percent in 2019 to 13.1 percent. Five issue areas saw no change or a slight increase in the portion of respondents reporting giving in 2020: social services (26.9 percent in 2019 and 2020), health (24 percent and 24.7 percent), environment (14.6 percent and 16.1 percent), and arts and culture (10.2 percent and 13 percent).

According to the report, the share of respondents who said they did not give through any of thirteen channels — including mailed appeals, charity websites, and fundraising events — increased from 16.4 percent in December 2018, to 20 percent in December 2019, to 24.9 percent in December 2020. At the same time, the survey found that 12.7 percent of all respondents expressed a desire to be approached more by charities and 20.4 percent said that they might be willing to give more if approached, with higher rates among African Americans (22 percent and 28.1 percent) and Gen Zers (18.6 percent and 37.2 percent). And while 33.6 percent of all respondents said they preferred donating to a charity serving specific needs in their ethnic communities, African Americans (51.4 percent) and Gen Zers (42.1 percent) were more likely to say so.

“The sector is facing a participation crisis where, despite growing overall giving, the portion of Americans contributing to charities is decreasing,” said Give.org president and CEO H. Art Taylor. “Based on self-reported giving to different charity types, our results suggest that the trend continued during 2020. This is a worrisome trend as we strive to build a diverse and inclusive charitable sector.”