According to the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, people now rate corporations as more ethical than not-for-profits. If you lead volunteers, that stat should scare you. Trust in NGOs – and, I suspect, trust in volunteer programs – is lower than that of big business.
Part of it is the political rhetoric that is becoming more prevalent around the world. Part is sensationalised news headlines. When politicians, journalists and other influencers regularly vilify organisations or their leadership, people start to internalise those comments. And even if the story may be true for only one or a handful of organisations, it affects how all organisations are seen.
So I thought I’d write about how to rebuild trust in volunteer programs. Then I did a bunch of research … and changed my mind. As well as reading studies and reports and such like, I watched a few TED talks. One of them opened my eyes and changed the focus of this article. I’ve seen that it’s not about building trust after all.
Because trust is a response, not an action. Trust isn’t under our control. You can’t build something that someone else gives you. The TED talk, Onora O’Neill’s “What we don’t understand about trust”, clarifies that what we really need to build is trustworthiness. That’s the part that’s under our control.
We build the conditions under which people choose to trust us or not. It’s like love. We can’t make someone love us, but we can make ourselves lovable. We can’t make people trust us, but we can become more trustworthy. How? There are a few ways.
Be honest.
When we gloss over or hide bad or unpleasant things because we’re trying to get people to sign up, that’s dishonest. People will stop trusting us. We become less trustworthy. Being trustworthy means being transparent. Admit mistakes; if you screw up don’t look for excuses or blame it on someone else (even in your own mind). Don’t hide the downsides of a role; if there are hard or unpleasant parts to it, say so. Be clear about expectations; don’t say something will take half an hour when you know perfectly well it will take two. (Had that happen to me more than once!) And so on.
Be authentic.
People have a “spidey-sense” for fake, and they won’t trust you if they pick up that you’re putting on an act. Understood: being your “true, authentic self” is easier said than done if you don’t look, sound, think or act like those around you. Yes, it is hard. Being seen as untrustworthy is harder.
More importantly, create the conditions for other people to be authentic. Ensure that all volunteers feel safe to be themselves. More, make sure that they are encouraged to be, and valued for it. Our differences are what make us strong.
Be competent.
Both as a leader and your program itself. When the program’s systems are riddled with problems, people will see a lack of competency and won’t trust in the process. Ensure that all the links on your volunteer page work. Answer inquiries quickly and consistently. Communicate regularly, especially when there are changes happening. Have useful tasks ready for them when they show up. If you’re asked a challenging question, don’t guess at the answer. Say you don’t know (be honest!) but that you will find out and get back to them. Then do.
Be empathetic.
When people feel you don’t care about them, everything gets harder. Show that you care about them. Look at them when they talk with you. Listen to their concerns and ideas. This may seem easy, but it isn’t always. To establish empathy with someone takes time, and that’s something that leaders of volunteers tend to be short on. But it’s worth the time. Because when people know you care, they’ll respond with trust and even more effort.
So, we can’t make people trust us.
What we can do is make ourselves trustworthy, so that they are willing to offer their trust. I started this article with talking about the larger, global picture of a lack of trust in not-for-profits, and I understand that there isn’t any way that a single leader of volunteers can change that. It just means that focusing on what we can control – our own program’s trustworthiness – is all the more important. If all of us leaders work on improving the trustworthiness of the programs we run, trust in volunteer programs overall will improve.
Look at the places where your trustworthiness might be weak, and work on strengthening them. Try picking one particular issue this week and fixing just that. If you know that a link on your page is broken, ask your tech person to reconnect it. If you catch yourself thinking about other things when a volunteer is talking to you, make a point of refocusing your attention on them.
We can improve trust in volunteer programs, by improving our program’s trustworthiness.
