Survey reveals Canadians suspicious of church charities

Edmonton, Canada - One-third of Canadians have either little or no trust in churches when it comes to charitable work, while hospitals' fundraising inspires the most confidence, a new survey reveals.

The survey of Canadians' attitudes towards charities, to be released today, places churches third-last among the types of charities the public trusts. Only charities that focus on arts and international development finished worse, with the latter earning at least some trust of 57 per cent of those polled.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos Reid for the Edmonton-based Muttart Foundation. It is the third in a series of four surveys conducted every second year.

Once the centre of community fundraising, churches were found to be less trusted than charities that do work for animals, the environment and social services, according to the survey.

And while churches are still raising a strong share of the nation's charity dollars about 45 per cent of all donations went to churches and faith-based groups during a period in 2003-04, a recent audit found the survey's results reflect a shift in society, said Bob Wyatt, the foundation's executive director.

"I suspect that there are some people who object to some of the things that churches are espousing," Wyatt said from Toronto Wednesday.

Canadian Council of Christian Charities CEOJohn Pellowe said hangover from churches' sexual abuse scandals and television ministries' fundraising scandals likely factored into the survey responses. More people arriving in Canada from non-Christian countries also means less familiarity with churches, Pellowe said.

"Regardless of whether they believe in our faith or not, we should be operating with such obvious integrity that they should at least believe we're doing to do what we say we're going to do," he said.

Hospitals had at least some trust from 89 per cent of respondents, followed by charities for children (85 per cent), health research (84 per cent) and education (77 per cent).

Charity leaders were only behind nurses and doctors as the most trustworthy professionals, with 77 per cent of respondents having at least some trust in them. Politicians ranked as the least trustworthy at 34 per cent, though that was four percentage points higher than the 2004 survey.

While charities overall got good marks, about half of those surveyed said they were doing a fair or poor job of providing information on their programs.

Moreover, 62 per cent said it was unacceptable for charities to hire fundraisers or firms whose compensation is based on donation commissions.

Results came from interviews between May and July with almost 3,900 Canadians and carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 per cent.