Citing surveys, the Straits Times newspaper said the proportion of people who donated money for causes last year fell to 89 percent from 97 percent in 2004.

Total donations dropped from S$438 million in 2004 to S$341 million (US$215 million; €170 million) in the past 12 months, according to the surveys on individual giving commissioned by Singapore's National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre.

Telephone calls to the nonprofit center rang unanswered Friday.

Of 1803 survey respondents, some 55 percent said they had a lot of confidence in charities before the controversy at the National Kidney Foundation, while only 28 percent did afterward, the Straits Times reported.

T.T. Durai, the former chief executive of the National Kidney Foundation, resigned in disgrace last year after court revelations about the charity's spending habits and his salary led to a rare public outcry in a nation that prides itself on good corporate governance. He also admitted overstating the number of kidney dialysis patients in Singapore in an apparent bid to garner more donations.

Some 20 percent of respondents said the scandal at the foundation - as well as a controversy at the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped - left them with little or no confidence in charities, according to survey results. The percentage was just 6 percent before the scandals.

The Straits Times provided no margin of error for the survey.

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