Spending has overtaken making a positive difference as the most important factor influencing trust in a charity, according to the Charity Commission’s new survey on trust and public confidence.

While in 2008 35 per cent of respondents said the most important factor influencing trust was a charity’s ability to make a positive difference to the cause they work for, this year, 42 per cent said the most important factor is that charities ensure that a reasonable proportion of donations get to the end cause.

Furthermore, the most common reason why some charities lose trust is ‘not knowing how their money is spent’.

Chair of the Charity Commission, Dame Suzi Leather, said the report indicated that people were becoming more interested in how charities spent their donations:

"Charities will need to respond to more discriminating donors by explaining their spending decisions to the public," said Dame Suzi, "and by demonstrating what they achieve."

The survey also found that charities are still the third most trusted group, just behind doctors and the police and that the proportion of people reporting high levels of trust and confidence in charities has increased by 5 per cent since 2008.

Some 1,150 people were surveyed by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Charity Commission.