Center for Social Innovation

The public is less trusting of nonprofits. According to one survey in 2001, 8 percent of the public said that they did not trust charitable organizations. A year later, that number doubled to 16 percent. Unfortunately for those organizations, charitable giving depends on trust: As the level of trust declines, so does charitable giving. Therefore, it is in the best interest of nonprofits to show that they are trustworthy. But how? René Bekkers of Utrecht University has the solution, writing that accreditation is what leads to increased levels of trust. His article, “Trust, Accreditation, and Philanthropy in the Netherlands,” was published last December in Nonprofit and Voluntary Quarterly (vol. 32, no. 4).

The Netherlands’ model of accreditation, one of self-regulation, works well for both donors and ... Read more