Crowd of people

Public support

NGOs have long recognised the importance of building wider public support for international development, but continue to face the challenge of low public trust of, and engagement in, their causes.

Public support is vital for increasing pressure on governments and the private sector to enact change, to create stronger civil society organisations, and to sustain lifestyle changes that halt excessive consumption.

There is a wealth of insight on public attitudes and effective messaging available to the sector, but this is often difficult to distil and apply to a specific cause or campaign. Bond’s Public Support project aims to support NGOs to access the key takeaways from this insight and embed best-practice approaches across all areas of public engagement.

Public support essentials

  • Public Attitudes towards development: this guide draws learning from the Aid Attitude Tracker to support NGOs to be more effective in making the case for aid and development
  • The Narrative Project: this piece of research highlights how our narrative approach to international development can change public attitudes
  • DevCommsLab: this website can help you find insights to help you understand audiences, motivate public action and influence attitudes

Listen to our podcast episode where we discuss media attitudes and the erosion of public trust in NGOs.