Social trust in non-profit organizations: A bibliometric analysis and its implications for human behavior and community engagement

This study examines the intellectual structure and thematic evolution of the scientific literature on social trust in nonprofit organizations through a bibliometric approach. The analysis was conducted on 210 documents indexed in Scopus between 2003 and 2025 using the Bibliometrix package in RStudio and scientific visualization through CiteSpace. The results indicate significant publication growth since 2014, with scientific attention peaking during the 2023–2025 period. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia emerged as the leading centers of scientific production and international collaboration, while contributions from developing countries, including Indonesia, demonstrated a promising upward trend. Thematic mapping and keyword co-occurrence analyses identified three major research clusters: community empowerment and participation, nonprofit governance and communication, and trust-building in civic participation. Highly influential authors, including Albanna H. Al-Emran M. and Alalwan A.A. demonstrate that trust is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct encompassing institutional legitimacy, participatory communication, and social capital formation. The findings highlight the strategic, although not predominant, role of social marketing approaches in strengthening public trust through value-oriented communication and shared narratives. Furthermore, this study positions trust as both a prerequisite for and an outcome of sustained community engagement, thereby advancing the conceptual understanding of human behavior in social contexts. The findings also provide practical implications for nonprofit managers, social workers, and policymakers in designing trust-based communication strategies and community interventions. Future research should integrate qualitative content analysis and cross-cultural perspectives to deepen understanding of the contextual mechanisms underlying social trust formation.