Giving Compass' Take:

• Nonprofit Quarterly reports on statements from charity leaders in the UK to address the erosion of trust in recent years from the public in relationship to the sector.

• What can the U.S. learn from how Britain approaches this issue? One of the main takeaways here is that it should always be our goal to strive for improvement. Let's continue listening.

• Here's how faith in relationships launched this British charity to sustainability.

Years ago, NPQ talked with a philanthropic leader in the UK who commented that the US nonprofit sector is often happy to see itself as the gold standard for the world — and loath to learn new insights and approaches from elsewhere. This he saw as a disturbing arrogance that blocked learning and, indeed, we have noted here at NPQ that there is generally less interest in civil sector stories that emanate from elsewhere in the world … which is to say, we need to pay far more attention to these, including this one — applying that broader thinking to our own situations.

The UK’s 168,000 registered charities raise more than £76.7 billion a year despite lingering and new scandals, such as the notorious Presidents Club, and surveys that continue to show in 2018 that public trust in charities is sliding. The social affairs correspondent of the Guardian, Robert Booth, reports on the work Tina Wendy Stowell, Baroness Stowell of Beeston, the new Chair of the UK’s Charity Commission, is doing to strengthen the sector.

Reporting in advance of the speech Stowell gave at the Royal Society of Arts, Booth writes about the “concept of charity” being under attack and that Stowell’s speech will “single out aggressive fundraising practices, the exploitation of vulnerable people, and single-minded pursuit of organizational growth at the expense of charitable objectives, as examples of bad behavior that should cease.” Booth asserts that Stowell may be using this opportunity to also embolden her appeal for more government funding of the Charity Commission following years of budget cuts.

Read the full article about confronting declining public trust in charity by Jim Schaffer at nonprofitquarterly.org.