Nonprofit Governance Study Released

As the nonprofit sector continues to promote greater accountability and transparency, more research is needed to develop best practices and support policy debates. The Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy has released "Nonprofit Governance in the United States: Findings on Performance and Accountability From the First National Representative Study."

The report analyzes data collected in 2005, which covers more than 5,100 nonprofit organizations. It addresses three areas of nonprofit governance: how accountability policies such as Sarbanes-Oxley affect nonprofits; factors that promote or impede boards' stewardship of organizations; and the board composition and recruitment process. Here is just one of the study's many findings:

"Substantial percentages of boards are simply not actively engaged in various basic governance activities—and if anything, this study, based on self-reports, likely understates the problem. Furthermore, we find a level of insularity among nonprofit boards in certain respects that is not consistent with their public-interest serving mandate. This is true in the areas of composition, where we saw high levels of ethnic and racial homogeneity."

See also consulting group Grant Thorton’s "2006 National Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations.”

To find additional readings from the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature, click on the subject headings below:

Nonprofit organizations-accountability
Board members