Do young people trust organizations—nonprofit, religious or otherwise—with their financial support?

The Trust Factor, Barna’s latest installment in The State of Generosityseries, offers fresh data and insights to help leaders inspire the next generation on their generosity journey. This article surfaces some key findings from the report, allowing both nonprofit and church leaders to better understand if Millennials and Gen Z trust organizations with their donations.

Trust of Nonprofit Organizations Is Moderately High Across Age Groups Past Barna research of Gen Z and Millennials as well as new data published in The Trust Factor find young people’s overall trust of institutions trending lower than other generations. Now, how do those patterns connect more directly to giving practices?

Barna’s survey presented respondents with a few possible avenues for giving or fundraising: nonprofit organizations in general and faith-based options like religious organizations or Christian churches. We asked people how much they would trust each with their financial support, and their responses vary by generation—though not always in ways you’d expect. (We also asked about the more recent innovation of social media fundraisers, the findings of which can be found in The Trust Factorreport.)

When it comes to nonprofits, generations Gen Z through Gen X place a similar level of trust in organizations’ ability to use donations; about one-quarter in each group would “completely” trust these groups with their theoretical financial support. Percentages decline among Elders (20%) and especially among Boomers (11%).