WASHINGTON— ASAE has released a new Insight Update on Trust and Associations (opens in a new tab), revealing that nearly all senior association leaders surveyed see trust as essential to their organizations’ impact and influence. With 84.8% identifying cultivating trust as a very or extremely important strategic and operational priority in the coming year, the report examines how associations can earn and strengthen trust amid polarization, misinformation and rapid technological change.
Based on responses from more than 230 senior association leaders, the report will help inform ASAE’s strategic investment in its Trust Associations campaign (opens in a new tab), advancing the Grow Influence & Impact pillar of ASAE’s new strategic framework. In August, the ASAE Board approved an investment to make the campaign a cornerstone initiative of ASAE.
“Associations earn trust through the expertise they share, the standards they uphold and the commitments they deliver on,” said ASAE President and CEO Michelle Mason, FASAE, CAE, AAiP. “This research reinforces how essential that trust is to our community’s influence and impact. It also points to an opportunity and a responsibility to help more people understand how associations strengthen communities and improve lives.”
Three findings underscore that opportunity:
- Trust strengthens impact and influence. Nearly all respondents (98.7%) agree that an association’s impact and influence are strengthened by the trust it builds with its community. Similarly, 97.9% believe associations have a responsibility to serve as trusted stewards of knowledge and truth, and 97.0% say associations have an important role in strengthening trust.
- Perceived trust is strongest within association communities. Respondents believe their organizations are trusted completely or a great deal by board and volunteer leadership (93.5%) and members (77.9%). Perceived trust is considerably lower among policymakers (39.6%), media (37.1%) and the general public (26.4%), highlighting the need to build greater awareness of associations’ value and contributions.
- The leading perceived threats are external. Political or societal polarization (53.0%) and misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (48.3%) are the most frequently identified risks, followed by declining confidence in expertise or institutions (38.3%).
The report also explores artificial intelligence’s competing implications for trust. While 46.4% of respondents see AI increasing the speed and accessibility of credible information, 44.6% believe it will make credible information harder to distinguish from misinformation. At the same time, 39.3% see opportunities for associations to differentiate themselves as trusted expert sources.
The findings emphasize that building trust begins with demonstrating trustworthiness. The most frequently identified approaches include communicating transparently (50.6%), producing credible research, data or guidance (45.0%), demonstrating ethical leadership (35.5%) and engaging members in decisions (30.7%).
ASAE launched its Trust Associations campaign in 2025 as part of its advocacy efforts to protect the association community’s tax treatment on Capitol Hill. Working with the Community Impact Coalition, ASAE helped keep onerous proposals targeting associations out of the eventual tax legislation. The campaign’s continued development will build broader understanding of associations’ contributions and their role as credible sources of knowledge and leadership.
To download Insight Update: Trust and Associations, visit the ASAE website (opens in a new tab).