Decoupling Under Scrutiny: Consistency of Managerial Talk and Action in the Age of Nonprofit Accountability

Decoupling theory suggests inconsistencies in what nonprofits do and what they claim to do. Accountability is a potential antidote to such inconsistencies in the nonprofit sector. To test whether different features of accountability prevent decoupling, I examine the divergence in statements about managerialism among nonprofit organizations in a major U.S. metropolitan area. The analysis compares a survey of organizations to public discourse based on five-million-word website text. Professionalism and evaluation indeed prevent organizations from embellishing their discourse. However, inconsistencies between managerial practices and managerial discourse remain frequent: Organizations continue to present symbolic displays of managerialism to the general public, particularly when their missions are tangible. Furthermore, ratings generate inconsistencies by leading organizations to downplay managerial practices. This study develops an institutional understanding of managerial talk and action, shows that the problem of decoupling in the “age of accountability” is multifaceted, and has implications for the estimation of nonprofit practices using automated text analysis.

Scouting as Community Support Opportunities for the Underserved to Exceed

It is absolutely critical that we have grand conversations about supporting young males of color in our communities. Though this conversation is now front and center, it has not always been this way. There have always been some organizations that were having this conversation behind closed doors and quietly. Historic organizations like the Boy Scouts of America have acted as a conduit to allow communities of color to mentor and support their boys and young men in ways that were authentic to the needs of the community and the resources that the community had to offer. This case study examines that infrastructure and those resources through the eyes of an executive leader within Boy Scouts of America who is also an African American male. This is a case study of nonprofit accountability within communities of color.

An Experimental Study of Voluntary Nonprofit Accountability and Effects on Public Trust, Reputation, Perceived Quality, and Donation Behavior

Voluntary accountability carried out by nonprofit organizations seeks to ensure organizational adherence to financial and ethical standards beyond legal regulations, thereby sending signals of quality and trustworthiness. Yet, insights into whether and how different forms of voluntary nonprofit accountability influence the public’s attitude are limited, and recent calls emphasize the need for further empirical investigation. Building on the combination of three different research streams, this article presents a conceptual framework that distinguishes between four forms of (voluntary) nonprofit accountability within the theoretical context of the principal-agent theory. In an online experiment with 407 participants, the author demonstrates that externally certified voluntary accountability demonstrates higher reputation and perceived quality among nonprofit organizations, but not relating to donation behavior (relative to the other accountability conditions). Internal voluntary accountability has no effect, whereas no accountability is associated with less public trust, reputation, perceived quality, and donation behavior (compared with legal minimum accountability).

Founders, Families, and Futures: Perspectives on the Accountability of Australian Private Ancillary Funds

This research explores perspectives on the accountability of Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs), a type of Australian endowed philanthropic foundation. PAFs are relatively new giving structures that have experienced strong growth over the past 15 years. With limited regulatory obligations and exemptions available from public reporting, PAFs have discretion in various forms of public accountability. Using Ebrahim’s conceptual framework of nonprofit accountability, this study explores PAF accountability in terms of to whom, for what, how, and why, examining tensions between PAFs’ private form and public purpose. Through in-depth interviews with managers and trustees of 10 PAFs, findings reveal that PAFs engage in accountability for internal reasons relating to their mission and purpose, and their desire to lead others in philanthropy. PAFs are influenced by philanthropic peers, in particular other PAFs; but their accountability does not necessarily include public disclosure or transparency. Four variations to Ebrahim’s accountability framework are proposed.