Attitudes to Nonprofits After Katrina and Tsunami are Generally Positive

The American public’s attitudes to, and perceptions of, nonprofits, including charities, foundations, and other philanthropic organizations is generally positive, but substantial minorities hold somewhat negative opinions of nonprofits in general. Individual charities which were actively involved in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina mostly receive strong positive ratings. However, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is rated negatively by a 72 percent majority.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive^® among a nationwide cross-section of 1,833 U.S. adults between October 11 and 17, 2005. It measures, therefore, the public’s reactions to how nonprofits responded to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the tsunami which devastated parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other countries in Southeast Asia.

The main findings of the survey include:

• The overall average public rating of nonprofits (defined as "including charities, private foundations and other philanthropic groups") is 65 on a scale of 1 to 100. In other words, it is generally positive.
• The segments of the population which give generally better than average marks to nonprofits are younger adults, Hispanics, and people with graduate or post graduate degrees. Surprising perhaps, some people who would be more likely to be beneficiaries of charitable activities – less educated people, lower income groups and African Americans - tend to rate nonprofits, on average, somewhat less well than other segments of the population. This may be a reflection of the events in New Orleans. There is little difference between the ratings given by Republicans, Democrats or Independents.
• Notwithstanding these generally positive views, the public is more or less equally divided between those who believe "the nonprofit sector" is on the right track (34%), the wrong track (30%) or are not sure (37%). This is clearly not a ringing endorsement.
• A majority (54%) does not believe that the response to Hurricane Katrina has changed their opinions of nonprofits. Of the remainder, slightly more, 27 percent, report feeling more positive toward them than report feeling less positive (19%).
• The organizations perceived by the largest proportions of all adults to have been involved with responding to Katrina are the American Red Cross (95%), FEMA (83%), the National Guard (79%), the Salvation Army (74%), the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (67%), the Army Corp of Engineers (65%), and Habitat for Humanity (64%).
• Among those who are aware that these organizations did respond to Katrina, the nonprofits with the highest ratings are Habitat for Humanity (85% positive), the Humane Society (85%), the Salvation Army (83%), the ASPCA (83%), the National Guard (81%), Catholic Charities (79%) and the American Red Cross (77%).
• All organizations which were evaluated received positive ratings of 62 percent or more of all adults, with one exception. A large (72%) majority of those who were aware of FEMA’s involvement rate it’s performance negatively.

Measuring volunteerism and donations to charity is notoriously difficult as there is a tendency for some people to claim they did the socially desirable thing when they did not actually do it. However, it is clear that the American Red Cross was the organization which received donations (in cash or in kind) from the largest number of people for both the tsunami (18%) and for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (36%). Second, also by a wide margin was the Salvation Army for both the tsunami (10%) and the Hurricanes (18%). No other charity measured comes close.

"Please rate your overall feelings about nonprofit organizations, including charities, private

foundations and other philanthropic group from 1 to 100. "1"means you have "very negative feelings" for nonprofit organizations and "100" means you have "very positive feelings" for them."

Base: All Adults

"In general, do you think the nonprofit sector in America is on the right track, or has pretty seriously gotten off in the wrong direction?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

"Based upon what you have read, seen or heard about the response to Hurricane Katrina, how has your opinion of America’s nonprofit organizations been impacted? "Do you view nonprofits…?"

Base: All Adults

Note: Percentages may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

"Based upon what you have read, seen or heard about, which of the following organizations are you aware of as being actively involved in responses to Hurricane Katrina?"

(Note: respondents were shown a list)

Base: All Adults

Note: Multiple-response question.

"How would you rate the job being done by each of the organizations providing relief to Hurricane Katrina victims?"

Base: Adults Aware of Organization (Variable Base)

Note Positive is the net score of the "excellent" and "good" responses; Negative is the net score of the "fair" and "poor" responses.

"Have you donated to any of the following charities…?"

Base: All Adults

Note: (1) "Donated" probably includes the donations of money or goods or volunteering.

2. Other research suggests that more people may claim to have donated than actually did so.

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between October 11 and 17, 2005 among a nationwide cross section of 1,833 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the various sub-samples listed in the tables above is higher and varies. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (nonresponse), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample was not a probability sample.

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Q900, Q905, Q910, Q920, Q926, Q931