A newly released study indicates that a third of the world doesn't "lacks confidence" in NGO's.
"In the United States, 60 percent of respondents said they trust charities, and 27 percent said they don’t. Those results are similar to a Chronicle poll in 2015, which found that 62 percent of Americans have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in charitable organizations."
Uh, nonprofit boards - this is YOUR domain. If your community doesn't trust you, YOU should be asking why. Actually, you should first be asking if this is actually true in your community. And, you should be asking the question about who IS your community and what is your relationship. This is also the time to remind you of the value of community engagement governance - an important step forward to ensuring that those you serve do indeed trust you.
If you take a serious look around at what nonprofits have bombed-out, I suggest you may find that a root cause is the disconnect between the board and the community - particularly those you serve but also the donors/funders. This is not a situation that has to be your nonprofit's reality.