In this season centered on giving and connections with family and friends, I’ve been reflecting more on trust. Trust bonds people to each other, and people to the institutions that are fundamental to a functioning and thriving society. It is the sine qua non of both journalism and fundraising, where my professional life has intersected for 20+ years.
Over the past decades, our trust in each other and our institutions has been crumbling, and our increasing polarization isn’t helping matters. The share of partisans who view those who identify with the opposing party as immoral, dishonest and unintelligent has dramatically risen. Since 1979, Gallup has been looking at how much Americans trust major institutions. In that first survey, 49% of Americans expressed a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in nine cornerstone institutions; 44 years later that figure is 26%. In case you’re wondering, trust in newspapers is at 18%, up from an all time low of 16% in 2022.