Voluntary Regulation of NGOs and Nonprofits: An Accountability Club Framework

How can nonprofit organizations and NGOs demonstrate to stakeholders that they are using funds appropriately and delivering on their promises? Many nonprofit stakeholders, including funders and regulators, have few opportunities to observe nonprofit internal management and policies. Such information deficits impede outside 'principals' from differentiating credible nonprofits from the less credible ones. This volume examines a key instrument employed by nonprofits to respond to these challenges: voluntary accountability clubs. These clubs are voluntary, rule-based systems created and sponsored by non governmental actors. Through these clubs, nonprofits agree to abide by certain rules regarding internal governance and send a signal of quality to key principals. Nonprofit voluntary programs are relatively new but are spreading rapidly across issue areas. This book investigates how the emergence, design and success of such initiatives vary across a range of sectors and institutional contexts in the United States, the Netherlands, Africa, and Central Europe.