Despite ongoing corporate distrust and organisational disruption in the corporate sector, Australian charities are enjoying all-time high levels of reputation.

The annual Charity RepTrak® surveyed Australians to measure overall reputation of the country’s 40 largest charities. Results found that the Royal Flying Doctor Services has maintained its position as Australia’s most reputable charity.

CareFlight jumped one place from 2017 to rank second overall this year and Guide Dogs rose one place to rank third. St Johns Ambulance fell two places to fourth and Starlight Children’s Foundation improved by two places to rank fifth.

“The fact that our top four ranked charities this year are the same as 2017 reinforces the stability that these leading organisations have maintained,” RI Managing Director, Oliver Freedman, said.

“In particular, Royal Flying Doctor Service should be congratulated on its consistently high scores and leading position across all seven drivers of reputation.”

Other results found that the Ronald McDonald House Charities was the largest improved organisation, having jumped 12 places overall from 2017 to rank sixth. Other charities that saw significant improvement was the National Breast Cancer Foundation and the McGrath Foundation, which both rose by nine places from 2017.

In this year’s Annual Australian Charity Reputation Index (RepTrak®), conducted by the global Reputation Institute (RI), charities were found to have avoided the erosion of trust among corporations and “came out the other side as a stronger, more reputable sector”.

Freedman said the impact on the community, how service is delivered and responsible governance contributed to ongoing trust.

“As a result of the continued effort, Australians clearly view our charities as trustworthy, transparent, providing strong leadership and valuable services,” Freedman said. “Our corporations could learn a lot from the charitable sector, particularly as they manage ongoing reputation issues affecting our financial services industry.”

Freedman added that the top 31 charities in the Index have stronger reputations overall than the top ranked Australian corporations, Air New Zealand, Toyota and Qantas.

“While individual charities may move up and down in overall rankings, the sector itself continues to grow in reputational strength,” Freedman said. “The lowest ranked charity in Australia still has a stronger overall reputation score than most of Australia’s corporations.”

Top 40 charity rankings: