institutional trust, sector confidence, and charitable giving

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Institutional Trust, Sector Confidence,

and Charitable Giving

Mark Hager, ASUEric Hedberg, NORC

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Two aims

Theoretical clarification of different conceptions of trust.

Sort out relationship between two dimensions of trust and their relationships with giving.

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Different conceptions of trust1. Trust in specific

organizations

2. Generalized trust

3. Institutional trust

4. Sector confidence

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Trust in specific organizations

“I trust my church, so I give to it.”

Eg, Sargeant and Lee 2004Trust in an

organization

Giving

Commitment to

organization

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Generalized trust

“I trust people to do the right thing, so I’ll give to Save the Children.”

Rosenberg (1956): “Generally speaking, do you believe most people can be trusted?”

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Generalized trust

Putnam: Trust on the decline. Trust can be built from civic

engagement.

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Generalized trust

Uslaner 2002 Bekkers 2003Engagement is a

consequence of trust, not a cause.

Generalized Trust Giving

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Institutional trust “I trust institutions to work

for our common good, so I’ll give to CARE.”

Grønbjerg 2009

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Charitable Confidence Paul Light, since 9/11

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Trust versus Confidence

Institutional Trust: Deeply held moral value, formed early, hard to change.

Sector Confidence: Formed by experience, influenced by media.

“Nonprofit executives get paid too much, so food bank donation from me.”

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Question

Sector confidence has been almost totally overlooked in studies of charitable giving.

What role does sector confidence play in explaining institutional trust’s influence on giving?

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Data and Method

KnowledgeNetworks panel of 1000 Arizona residents.

April/May 2009: Institutional trust and charitable confidence.Institutional trust: police officers, nonprofits, elected officials, hospitals, religious orgs, schools.

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Data and Method

July 2009: Giving, volunteering, various controls.

Wave overlap with full data: N=527.

Dependent variable: Ln total charitable contributions in 2008.

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OLS Predicting Giving

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Structural Equation Path Model

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Conclusions

In giving decisions, institutional trust is moderated by charitable confidence.

Institutional trust does not have an independent effect.

Future research needs to bring sector confidence into discussion of trust.

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Revisions

Cut structural equation model.

See if relationship holds up in three different models:1. Current OLS, ln(giving)2. Logit, give or not3. Multinomial logit: no giving, secular giving, religious giving, both

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Thanks!

Questions?