Journal of Marketing Management

Do Stakeholders Trust Nonprofits to Address Change?

The success of nonprofit organisations (NPO) often depends on the dynamics of trust with a range of stakeholders (Rundle-Thiele et al., 2023). NPOs traditionally operate in an ecosystem of stakeholder relations, ranging from, but not limited to, donors and funders (Wymer et al., 2021), volunteers and staff (Merrilees et al., 2021; Mitchell & Clark, 2021), trustees (Armstrong & Wright, 2022), and the wider public (Hind, 2017). Trust can affect stakeholder’s willingness to engage with, or support, an NPO’s efforts to fulfil their missions and make a positive difference to their cause or beneficiaries (Bekkers & Wiepking, 2010). However, recently a growing number of scandals linked to concerns about governance, transparency, accountability, and the effectiveness of nonprofits have attracted increasing public, practitioner and scholarly attention on whether stakeholders truly trust NPOs to enact positive change (Hind, 2017; Hyndman & McConville, 2018). This call for papers seeks to advance our knowledge on the role of trust between nonprofits and their stakeholders, drawing primarily from the marketing and management literatures, but also from organisational behaviour, philosophy and social responsibility domains.

Although stakeholders’ relations are also integral to the corporate sector, the nonprofit sector is characterised by additional complexity and dynamism (Mitchell & Hyde, 2024). Key stakeholder groups, especially donors, experience heightened credence properties, or uncertainty, in how their financial support has led to tangible returns, largely because the return is secured by, and on behalf, of third parties or charity recipients (Sargeant et al., 2009). Nonprofit brands therefore exhibit greater complexity in managing stakeholder relations largely to the resulting information asymmetry between a charity and its stakeholders (Hofmann & McSwain, 2013). Not surprisingly, trust plays a central role in stakeholder engagement and support (Kearns, 2013). However, an additional layer of factors adds to this complexity, such as, but not limited to: (i) the changing dynamics between state and the civic sector (Mok et al., 2021), (ii) the business-charity dichotomy and hybrid charity structures (Brown & Fan, 2023) (iii) including and especially the rise of social enterprises (Hyde & Pickering, 2024), (iv) competition from cause related marketing and corporate social purpose branding (Smith & Higgins, 2000), (v) the need for new models of within and cross-sector collaboration (Crettez et al., 2020; Wæraas et al., 2024). (vi). disintermediation or direct to cause giving, e.g. crowdfunding (MacQuillin et al., 2023; Mitchell & Clark, 2022).

Trust refers to ‘the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of others based on positive expectations of the intentions or behaviour of the other party’ (Mayer et al., 1995, cited in Chapman et al., 2021a). Four different types of trust in relation to giving to nonprofit organisations (Chapman et al., 2021a; Hager & Hedberg, 2016) can be identified: i) Generalised trust relates to the implicit trust of donors that NPOs will use their donation appropriately for, ii) Institutional trust relates to public belief in the effectiveness of their social institutions, including charities, iii) Sectoral trust relates to effectiveness and prosocial orientation of the nonprofit sector, iv) Organisational trust relates to donor directed trust towards a NPO, reflected in the amount and frequency of donations (Bennett, 2018). Assessing the effects of trust types on giving has, however, produced divergent findings. Hager and Hedberg (2016), for instance, found support for the positive associations of sector trust but not for institutional trust. Chapman et al. (2021a) found stronger associations for organisational and sectoral trust than generalised and institutional trust but when combined, trust’s relationship with charitable giving was relatively modest, explaining just 5% of the variance. Clearly, other factors are at play in driving charitable giving, such as empathy and donor identities.

In a second study by Chapman and colleagues (2021b), global data on sector trust from 31 countries and across 9 years is analyzed and found no global crisis in trust in nonprofits. Instead, a small rise in trust was noted indicating that media amplified scandals have not spilled over to global sentiments on trust in NPOs. Chapman et al (2021b) suggest the existence of a “trust bank” in the sector, a reputational moral buffer which shields the sector’s public trust. Within the UK, a similar picture may be emerging. In its most recent assessment, the UK’s Charity Commission (2024) found levels of trust in the sector having reached a ten-year high. The complexity of trust’s role in NPOs is further highlighted by others.

Moreover, studies of trust in nonprofit organisations using a stakeholder lens identify that transparency is a strong antecedent for individual trust in a charity, as well as prior awareness of the organisation (Ortega-Rodríguez et al., 2020), for example in Wymer et al.’s (2021) study of Australian volunteering and in Bekker et al.’s (2020) study of public trust in German NPOs. Ortega-Rodriguez et al. (2020) found that despite ‘inadequate’ legislation requiring transparency in the nonprofit context, organisations that led the way in voluntarily disclosing their results, impact and practices benefitted from higher perceived credibility by their stakeholders. Bekker et al. (2020) found that trust should not be limited to a single conceptual or operational level: several levels in combination can be relevant, for example the context of the individual, and individual public trust evaluation in a nonprofit brand rather than the organisational context of that NPO. Atouba and Shumate (2020) identified the importance of trust for inter-organisational partnerships with nonprofits, reducing potential areas of conflict, enhancing the quality of interactions and bringing good faith in intent of partner behaviour.

Despite a body of work connecting trust with the donor stakeholder group, theoretical conceptualisation challenges remain. For example, directionality:  whether trust promotes giving (Sargeant & Lee, 2004) or whether giving promotes trust (Uslaner, 2002). Likewise, whether the dimensions of trust are through giving and receiving:  people who have a predisposition to trust others have been found to be more likely to give (Bekkers, 2003) but also NPOs have to be trusted to receive these donations (Bekkers, 2006) and to use the money effectively. This is further complicated in triadic giving theory through donor proximity to the beneficiary. For example, for overseas development charities where the beneficiaries are far away and there is a lack of ‘delivery proof’, trust in the NPO to deliver is key. For local charities, where the impact is more visible, there is stronger relationship directly with the beneficiaries rather than with the NPO. Saunders (2012), in particular, argues that context is key to understanding trust in organisations.

It is through this multi-disciplinary perspective that this Special Issue on trust in nonprofit organisations will contribute to this timely and cutting-edge debate.

Suggested topics/areas of enquiry and contexts for contributors.

We welcome studies of the changing dynamic of stakeholder trust in nonprofit organisations from any social science or humanities domain including, but not limited to, marketing, sociology, psychology, anthropology, organisational behaviour and philosophy.  We especially welcome articles from diverse cultural contexts that challenge the way we currently conceptualise trust dynamics towards NPOs. Submissions addressing, but not restricted to, the following topics are encouraged:

• How are the changes in stakeholder relationships within, between and towards nonprofit brands impacting the ability of the organisations to succeed in their charitable mission?
• Reflecting on the recent stakeholder dynamics in the nonprofit context, what are the implications for the near future of organisational resource acquisition?
• How is the role of, and balance between, individual stakeholders (such as wealthy donors or famous founders), corporations and the state changing with respect to the nonprofit landscape?
• How does the stakeholder-trust relation in NPOs differ in different cultural contexts and what are the implications for charity marketing? How does this relationship vary across the stakeholder’s decision-making process?
• To what extent is the nature of the business model changing as nonprofits work in partnership with the private sector and/or migrate to new models of social enterprise in order to be trusted to deliver services on behalf of the state?
• What roles can marketers play to build stakeholder trust in nonprofit organisations to achieve positive societal change?
• What actions by marketers tend to undermine stakeholder trust in charities or social enterprises?
• What effect do isomorphic pressures have on the stakeholder-trust relationship towards NPOs?
• Are there examples of best practice in nonprofit organisational management of stakeholder relationships that other organisations would benefit from knowing?
• Can the changing stakeholder relationships strengthen trust in nonprofit brands?

The editors welcome papers supported by dissemination materials such as infographics aimed at reaching a broader audience including practitioners.

The full Call for Papers including references can be found at the JMM blog site: https://www.jmmnews.com/do-stakeholders-trust-nonprofits/