How can NGOs strengthen trust in a changing world?

The world is losing trust in nongovernmental organizations. Those are the results of this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer, a yearly analysis of how society perceives governments, businesses, media, and NGOs. “NGOs should have been having a moment,” said David Bersoff, Edelman’s head of research, at a Devex event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “They are the logical institution you would think people would turn to when governments are failing them. But what happened is instead, people have been turning more to business.” It’s a trend that’s been repeating itself for the last three years. For decades, NGOs earned higher trust ratings than businesses, Bersoff said. But the two tied in 2020 — and by 2021, businesses had taken the top slot. For the next three years, businesses beat out NGOs by three to four percentage points. And in 2024, trust in NGOs was at 57%, compared to trust in businesses at 61%. People consistently perceived NGOs as more ethical than businesses, but businesses were seen as more capable and competent. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter weighed out, Bersoff explained — a preference that hasn’t seemed to budge. “Business is not the hero. Business is the anti-hero,” said Bersoff. “If you’re in a small town, and the outlaws are coming in on horses, who are you going to pick to defend you, to save you? Is it the hapless sheriff, whose heart is in the right place, but he really isn’t that tough? Or is it going to be the person who can get things done even if their ethics might be a little bit suspect?” For Degan Ali, the executive director of humanitarian agency Adeso, those results weren’t a surprise. Ali pointed to the growth of NGOs over the years, and the expansion of such agencies across borders, programs, and people. Over the past two decades, there’s been a corporatization of international agencies, Ali said — one that’s often driven the largest groups from the core of what they’re trying to do. “The larger they have to become, the more bureaucratic they have to become, and the less in touch they are with the community,” said Ali, speaking at the event. “Sometimes, bigger is not better.” It’s something Ali, as the leader of a Somali-grown organization, has centered her professional life around. Ali joined Adeso — which was first founded by her mother — in 2003, leaving behind a career at the United Nations. Ever since, she’s focused on reshaping the humanitarian system, and calling for increased funding, power, and influence for local organizations. From the Devex stage, Ali spoke about Sudan, where local aid groups are supporting people cut off from the international community. She highlighted India, where a local organization posts the budget for its projects (and its staff members’ salaries) on its office’s front doors. And she pressed the crowd to rethink how we define trust, urging that the metric come from the communities NGOs serve. While local organizations struggle to get transparent budgets from bilateral or multilateral donors, Ali said, such groups are often the ones most scrutinized. Christine Sow, the president and CEO of Humentum, elaborated on the systematic reasons trust is eroding. With grants lasting just one, three, or five years, Sow explained, when funding is over, it’s over — something that often halts a project’s impact in its tracks. “People pick up and have to pack up their offices and lay off their staff and leave,” said Sow, speaking at the event. “We know that trust is built by longstanding, deep relationships in a community. We know that when we can move beyond funding that is on a short-term cycle dictated by a funder, we can build trust within a community and the people who are working with that community that is deeply rooted and actually is making that impact.” There’s a whole other system at play within the private sector, both Ali and Bersoff said. People trust that businesses will deliver a return on investment, the Edelman data found — but on the other hand, there’s no guarantee on impact for nonprofit organizations. Despite polished reports or extensive spreadsheets, the way impact is measured is far from perfect, Ali said, and the communities at the end of a project are fully aware of it. “The private sector is making sure that for every dollar, they spend it in the most efficient and impactful way,” said Ali. [People] understand that. We have to change our behavior if we really want to gain their trust back.”