18 September 2012

The Charity Commission is holding a panel debate under the heading 'Do charities deserve the public trust they enjoy?' as part of its Annual Public meeting on Wednesday 26 September 2012.

The event will be based on the findings of the Commission’s recently published independent research entitled ‘Public trust and confidence in charities’.

The research, conducted by Ipsos MORI, identified numerous interesting findings. It showed that there has been an increase in the number of people who feel that charities play an 'essential' role in society (37% compared to 30% in 2010). Overall, 96% of people say charities' role is essential, very important or fairly important.

The research found that public trust and confidence in charities remains high, with a mean score of 6.7 (up from 6.6 in 2010), and that the overwhelming majority of people believe charities should provide the public with information on 'how they spend their money' (96%) and on 'how they benefit the public' (94%). The public view on this has remained unchanged over time.

The most common reason why some charities are trusted less is not knowing how their money is spent (36% who trust certain charities less than others mention this). Two thirds (67%) of the public agree that some fundraising methods used by charities make them uncomfortable (in 2010 60%).

The most common reason given for trusting a charity more is having seen or experienced what they do (38%), unchanged from 2010.

The event, to be held at Church House, Westminster, is hosted by the Commission’s Chief Executive Sam Younger and interim Chair John Wood, and includes an overview of the Commission’s work.

The debate panellists are:

Dan Corry, Chief Executive, New Philanthropy Capital

Steve Egan, Deputy Chief Executive, HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England)

Joe Saxton, Founder, nfpSynergy

Dr Caroline Harper, Chief Executive, Sightsavers

The event is free to attend and includes refreshments. It starts at 4pm. To find out more and to attend, go to http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/About_us/About_the_Commission/boarddet.aspx

For further information please contact the press office.

PR 25/12

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. See www.charitycommission.gov.uk for further information or call our contact centre on 0845 300 0218.

2. To be the independent registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales acting in the public's interest to ensure that:

• charities know what they have to do
• the public know what charities do
• charities are held to account

3. There are over 160,000 main registered charities, some of which have similar names or working names. To avoid confusion, each registered charity can be identified by its individual registration number, which can be checked on the Register of Charities.

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