Trust Is Earned. Not Bought.

What the 2026 Most Trusted Nonprofits report teaches us about building enduring brands

Morning Consult's new Most Trusted Nonprofits 2026 report offers one of the best pictures yet of how Americans decide whom to trust. While many organizations compete for position, one stands alone at the top: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, again. With a net trust score of 60.7, more than six points ahead of the next-ranked nonprofit, St. Jude doesn't just lead. It occupies its own category, ranking first across every demographic measured, including age, gender, income and donor status.

That raises an important question: why?

Is it because St. Jude advertises more than everyone else? Partly. But mostly, no.

After more than four decades helping organizations build purpose-driven brands, I've learned a simple truth: visibility creates awareness, but trust comes from consistently delivering on a meaningful promise.

St. Jude owns one of the strongest purpose propositions in America. Everything about the organization reinforces one simple idea: families never receive a bill. That promise is emotionally compelling, easy to understand and repeated often. Every commercial isn't asking for money; it's showing children surviving cancer because generosity made it possible.

Few nonprofit brands demonstrate purpose this consistently. St. Jude's communications, patient stories, fundraising, research breakthroughs and donor experience all reinforce the same narrative, and that consistency builds over decades.

Trust is built through proof, not marketing.

The Morning Consult report reinforces this point. Giving Tuesday dramatically increases donations, but it does not increase trust. Trust remained essentially flat throughout Giving Tuesday despite significant spikes in giving. As the report notes, reputation builds over years, not a single fundraising campaign.

This is one of the most important findings in the study: marketing may drive today's donation, but trust drives tomorrow's.

The rest of the Top Five reveal similar patterns.

Make-A-Wish (No. 2) No nonprofit has a simpler emotional promise than helping grant a child's wish during the toughest moment of their life. The experience is real, memorable and easy to share, and every fulfilled wish creates another ambassador.

American Red Cross (No. 3) Few organizations are more visible when America needs help. Disasters, blood shortages, hurricanes and wildfires all put the Red Cross in front of Americans repeatedly when communities are most vulnerable, and that consistency builds trust.

American Heart Association (No. 4) The AHA has spent decades becoming America's trusted authority on heart health through research, education, advocacy and prevention, not simply fundraising. The brand owns its expertise.

American Cancer Society (No. 5) Cancer touches nearly every American family. ACS combines research leadership, patient support and advocacy with one of the longest-standing reputations in American philanthropy, and people trust organizations that have stood beside them during life's hardest moments.

The biggest surprise this year: Girl Scouts.

Morning Consult identifies Girl Scouts as the year's biggest mover, climbing across nearly every demographic. I believe a few forces are converging: parents increasingly value organizations that build confidence, leadership and resilience in girls, and Girl Scouts has modernized its programming around STEM, entrepreneurship and outdoor leadership without abandoning the nostalgia millions of Americans already feel toward the organization. It is both timeless and contemporary, a difficult balance to strike.

Purpose is still the greatest trust strategy.

Throughout my career, from helping launch the breast cancer movement with Avon to creating PNC Grow Up Great to developing corporate purpose for organizations around the world, I have believed one principle above all: purpose isn't what you say, it's what people experience consistently over time.

In an era when public trust is increasingly fragile, the greatest lesson from this report may be refreshingly simple: the organizations people trust most aren't chasing attention. They're steadily fulfilling their purpose, what they stand for. After enough years of doing that well, trust becomes their most valuable asset.

One final thought, not highlighted in the Morning Consult report: the top 10 organizations all share what I call "instantly understandable purpose." Within five seconds, nearly every American knows what they do, who they help, why they matter and how a donation makes a difference. That level of clarity is rare.

Many nonprofits describe programs. The leaders communicate a promise. In my experience, purpose clarity is one of the strongest predictors of long-term success: it aligns communications, fundraising, partnerships, volunteerism and employee engagement into a single, memorable idea. St. Jude has mastered this better than perhaps any nonprofit in America, and that is why it continues to lead.