Voluntary Regulation of NGOs and Nonprofits: An Accountability Club Framework

Description

How can nonprofit organizations and NGOs demonstrate accountability to stakeholders and show 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 make it difficult for 'principals' to differentiate credible nonprofits from 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 governance systems created and sponsored by nongovernmental actors. By participating in accountability clubs, nonprofits agree to abide by certain rules regarding internal governance in order to send a signal of quality to key principals. Nonprofit voluntary programs are relatively new but are spreading rapidly across the globe. 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.

Mary Kay Gugerty is Associate Professor in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, Seattle. Aseem Prakash is Professor of Political Science and the Walker Family Professor for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. He is the founding, General Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Business and Public Policy and the co-editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Professor Prakash's research examines core issues in the study of governance: how do institutions emerge, how they diffuse and get adopted, and how they impact outcomes. In doing so, he studies the complex relationship of businesses with governments and non-governmental organizations. His recent work focuses on the emergence, recruitment/diffusion, and efficacy of voluntary programs in the for-profit as well as the non-profit sectors. He is also examining issues pertaining to (1) NGO advocacy, (2) Corporate Responsibility, and (3) the influence of trade and FDI networks on the cross-country diffusion of rules, standards, and norms in areas such as the environment, human rights, labor rights, property rights and women's rights. Aseem Prakash is author of Greening the Firm: The Politics of Corporate Environmentalism (Cambridge University Press, 2000), co-author of The Voluntary Environmentalists: Green Clubs, ISO 14001, and Voluntary Environmental Regulations (Cambridge University Press, 2006), and co-editor of Advocacy Organizations and Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, 2010), Voluntary Programs: A Club Theory Perspective (2009), Coping with Globalization (2000), Responding to Globalization (2000) and Globalization and Governance (1999). Professor Prakash received a joint Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), Indiana University, Bloomington. His dissertation won the Academy of Management's 1998 Organization and the Natural Environment best dissertation award. Prior to gaining his Ph.D., he received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and worked fo

'This important volume is a detailed and sophisticated exploration of an increasingly important topic in the nonprofit and philanthropic world: the role of accountability and self-regulation. The pressures for nonprofit and philanthropic accountability are growing, and voluntary regulation is a key means to fulfil that imperative. This book will be crucial for scholars, students, policymakers and others in understanding these accelerating demands on the nonprofit sector and the role that self-regulation can play.' Mark Sidel, International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) and University of Iowa