Key Takeaways:
Greg Berman's May 6 Chronicle of Philanthropy op-ed argues Yale's public self-examination is a template for any institution facing declining public trust
The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy found only 42 percent of Americans expressed strong trust in nonprofits in March 2025, with support declining further six months later
The lesson is structural, not cosmetic: trust is built through competence, integrity, and responsiveness, not through better messaging or narrative consultants
When public trust in an institution declines, the nonprofit sector typically hires communications consultants and refines the narrative. Greg Berman, writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on May 6, argues Yale University ran the opposite play.
Yale commissioned a faculty committee to examine why public trust in higher education had collapsed, gave the committee a year to consult dozens of stakeholders, and published the full 58-page report in April with the uncomfortable findings included. The committee did not soften the verdict. It told Yale's own president the institution had been "more than mere bystanders" in the erosion.
That kind of public self-audit is rare across civil society, and Berman argues the trust gap is real. The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy found only 42 percent of Americans expressed strong trust in nonprofits in a March 2025 survey, with support declining further when the survey was repeated six months later. The sector's response has largely been narrative guidance from groups like Independent Sector. Berman calls that a category error.
The pattern applies beyond Yale. The $4 billion in donor-advised fund transfers that shuffle between sponsors without ever reaching a nonprofit. The OpenAI nonprofit fiduciary trial where the president cannot identify the charges his $30 billion stake faced. Schwarzman pledging $48 billion to a foundation framed around a future the public has no way to verify. Each defaults to the same playbook of messaging discipline. The Yale committee's bet is that the public's stated reasons for distrust are accurate. Cost. Opacity. Mission creep. Self-censorship. The fix is institutional, not communicative.
Berman's closing line is the part worth sitting with. Trust is not built through better branding or narrative change. It is built through competence, integrity, and responsiveness. For organizations weighing how to respond to a hostile environment, the question is not whether to communicate better. It is whether they are willing to publish what they find.
People Also Ask
Q: How can nonprofits rebuild public trust? A: According to Greg Berman, nonprofits should follow Yale's model of rigorous public self-examination rather than investing in messaging consultants. Trust is rebuilt through competence, integrity, and responsiveness, not better branding.
Q: What is the current public trust level in the nonprofit sector? A: A March 2025 survey from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy found 42 percent of Americans expressed strong trust in nonprofits, with the figure declining further when the survey was repeated six months later.
Q: What can governments and universities learn from Yale's trust report? A: The Yale model demonstrates that institutions facing declining trust benefit from honest internal review, public release of uncomfortable findings, and concrete reform commitments rather than communications strategies aimed at managing perception.
Q: Who is Greg Berman? A: Greg Berman is the co-editor of Vital City and the former executive director of the Center for Justice Innovation. His May 6 op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy argues that the Yale trust report should serve as a template for the entire civil society sector.