Soapbox Engage Blog

Trust from supporters is the primary “currency” of the nonprofit sector. While financial donations fuel your mission, their trust in your organization is what motivates them to continue supporting you.

However, the Edelman Trust Barometer, a survey of the general public designed to quantify and understand trust in governments, businesses, and nonprofits, found that this trust might be in trouble. In 2025, 61% of respondents held grievances against the government, businesses, and the wealthy, a trend that is now eroding trust in all institutions.

To restore trust, the report suggests addressing grievances (e.g., that institutions serve narrow interests), defining and championing shared interests, and working closely with local communities. In this guide, we’ll offer some actionable tips your nonprofit can use to rebuild or strengthen trust among your stakeholders.

How to Enhance Supporters’ Trust in Your Nonprofit

1. Prioritize Compliance
2. Commit to Transparent Communication
3. Leverage Data to Show Impact
4. Secure Financial Transactions

Prioritize Compliance

Demonstrate your nonprofit's commitment to best practices by maintaining compliance with relevant regulations, proactively managing legal risks, and adhering to industry standards for data privacy. This will prevent missteps (e.g., a data breach or public lawsuit) that damage your reputation and fracture donors’ trust.

Here are a few key areas to consider:

• Maintaining your tax-exempt status. Regularly review your 501(c)(3) standing and ensure you file your Form 990 on time each year. Losing this status due to administrative oversight can significantly impact donor confidence. To avoid this, consider working with a finance professional, like a nonprofit controller, to ensure you meet all legal requirements.


• Managing liability with waivers. Using waivers can help you manage risks and legal liability, preventing costly legal issues. Nonprofits typically require event attendees or volunteers to sign waivers acknowledging the risks of participation. Transparently acknowledging inherent risks while conducting due diligence to minimize them as much as possible is a signal of trustworthiness and professionalism.


• Following local or special fundraising requirements. Check local and state laws to ensure you hold the necessary permits for activities like raffles, auctions, or merchandise sales. Additionally, make sure you follow any special tax requirements. For example, nonprofits that choose to make and sell custom merchandise carefully track and report unrelated business income (UBI) on their taxes.


• Prioritizing data privacy. Adhere to data privacy standards when handling donor lists, such as encrypting sensitive information and getting explicit permission to use donor data. Additionally, provide transparency into how you collect and store data to build long-term trust.

Commit to Transparent Communication

Donors want to see the direct line between their contribution to your mission and the outcome. In other words, they want to see where the money goes. You can strengthen donors’ trust and confidence in your organization by infusing transparency into:

• Fundraising appeals. When asking for donations, use a data-backed “problem, solution, impact” formula. This approach goes beyond a general ask, incorporating real numbers and concrete details. Rather than “Donate to support Chicago youth,” you might say, “Your $50 buys 10 warm coats for kids in Chicago.”


• Impact updates. Frequently share tangible impact updates with donors. Try to combine statistics, emotional stories, and engaging visuals to create a compelling narrative. For instance, “Thanks to your support, our recent food was able to supply Thanksgiving dinners to 237 families.”


• Annual reports. Many nonprofits already provide annual reports or presentations that detail their impact and provide financial transparency. But remember to acknowledge the challenges you encountered and how you worked through them. Admitting where a program fell short and how you pivoted demonstrates maturity and builds deeper credibility than a highlight reel alone.

Additionally, give volunteers or other supporters more context about your internal processes or compliance forms. This might mean explaining how using waivers keeps your insurance premiums low, so more of your funding goes toward your mission.

Leverage Data to Show Impact

Notice a common thread in the previous section? Data is the key to maintaining transparency and building trust with donors.

Your supporters simply want to know that you are following through with your promises to use their contributions for good. But proving your impact starts with accurately tracking data. To do so, NPOInfo’s guide to nonprofit data collection recommends:

• Performing a data audit. Gather your data, reflect on the purpose of each dataset, and assess your findings to determine whether you are collecting the right data. Then, identify key areas for improvement (e.g., a strategy for keeping your data more organized going forward).


• Keeping data clean. Prioritize data hygiene by frequently removing inaccurate or unnecessary information. This includes records for deceased donors, duplicate profiles, outdated contact information, and people on do-not-call lists.


• Storing data in a secure, unified database. Ensure all of your data is routed to a single platform—ideally, a secure CRM. This way, you can gain a comprehensive view of all organizational data, search for key records, create data visualizations, and more.

Additionally, you can use forms and surveys strategically to build your database with useful donor insights you can use to measure and enhance your marketing efforts or online fundraising campaigns.

For instance, when creating an event waiver, consider adding a quick custom field asking users how they heard about the event. Then, use their answers to track the effectiveness of each marketing channel.

Secure Financial Transactions

Financial security is the bedrock of donor confidence. Supporters need to know that they can trust you with sensitive financial information, especially during high-volume periods like year-end fundraising, when fraud risk is heightened.

Take a preventative approach by choosing trustworthy technology that prioritizes data security. Here are some of the hallmarks of secure tech:

• PCI DSS compliance
• Role-based access controls (restrict system access based on staff roles)
• Strong encryption, typically 256-bit AES
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• SOC 2 Type II certification, which requires an audit from a third party
• Comprehensive audit trails that log every action taken within the system
• Automated fraud detection

Additionally, Smartwaiver warns against blindly trusting free solutions. While some likely have the features listed above, they are often more vulnerable to security risks and can be poorly maintained. Plus, free options have little incentive to “go the extra mile” by investing in stringent security measures.

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To effectively build trust with your audience, you’ll need to consistently work to maintain legal compliance, prioritize donors’ privacy, and communicate honestly and transparently. To get started, audit your current workflows and communications to identify gaps and key priorities. Start with one small change, like sending monthly program updates to supporters, and build from there.