Fundraising strategies to build public trust when collecting private donations

Abstract

Various Russian monitoring studies record low level of public trust in non-commercial organizations. Simultaneously, how those organizations whose operations directly depend on donations tackle the problem of public trust is lacking attention. This paper presents the results of an empirical study to examine the activities of charitable foundations which depend upon public donations. Through a series of expert interviews three main fundraising strategies were defined. The author highlights that low institutional trust may be compensated by the personal trust in a leader and/or an employee of the foundation as well as by high levels of transparency and raising awareness about foundation`s activities. Each strategy is different in terms of tools to collect donations, levels of interaction with the donors and a basis of trust.