Knowledge is power: why public knowledge matters to charities

The nonprofit sector is grappling with public perceptions of trust, accountability, and transparency. From the perspective of the sector, public ratings of accountability and transparency are often lower than expected, and as a result, the public's trust and its ensuing support may be dwindling. What appears to be missing from these discussions, however, is the role of knowledge. Drawing on theories and frameworks from consumer behavior and advertising, this study anticipates knowledge will moderate the effects of trust, transparency, and accountability on public support. Using telephone survey data from 3853 members of the Canadian public, the findings of this study demonstrate that knowledge does in fact have a moderating effectfor those respondents who reported high levels of knowledge about the sector, measures of trust, accountability, and transparency reliably predicted donation amount and volunteer status over and above the effect of demographic variables. For those respondents who reported low levels of knowledge, donation amount and volunteer status were predicted by demographic variables alone. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.