Voluntary Regulation of NGOs and Nonprofits
An Accountability Club Framework

Shows how nonprofit organizations and NGOs can demonstrate that they are using their funds appropriately and delivering on their promises.

Mary Kay Gugerty (Edited by), Aseem Prakash (Edited by)

9780521763141, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2010

322 pages, 9 b/w illus. 1 map 17 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.65 kg

'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

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.

The Club Framework: 1. Voluntary regulation of NGOs and nonprofits: an introduction to the club framework Mary Kay Gugerty and Aseem Prakash
Part I. Club Emergence: 2. Filling the gaps in nonprofit accountability: applying the club perspective in the US legal system Dana Brakman Reiser
3. Trends and patterns in third-party accreditation clubs Woods Bowman
4. Self-regulation at the state level: nonprofit membership associations and club emergence Mary Tschirhart
Part II. Club Sponsorship and Club Design: 5. Nonprofit infrastructure associations as reluctant clubs Dennis R. Young
6. Foundation accountability clubs and the search for philanthropic standards Peter Frumkin
7. Do self-regulation clubs work? Some evidence from Europe and some caveats from economic theory Andreas Ortmann and Katarina Svítková
8. NGO accountability clubs in the humanitarian sector: social dimensions of club emergence and design Maryam Zarnegar Deloffre
Part III. Club Design and Effectiveness: 9. The impact of sponsorship on club standards and design Angela Bies
10. The emergence and design of NGO clubs in Africa Mary Kay Gugerty
11. The benefits of accreditation clubs for fundraising nonprofits René Bekkers
Future Research and Conclusions: 12. Conclusions: nonprofit accountability clubs Aseem Prakash and Mary Kay Gugerty.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Conservation of the environment [RNK], Political economy [KCP], Non-governmental organizations [NGOs JPWH], Politics & government [JP]