Financial reporting is an important aspect of not-for-profit organisations’ (NPOs’) accountability. Globally, numerous and varying regimes exist by which jurisdictions regulate NPO financial reporting. This article explores whether NPOs should be required or expected to follow sector-specific international financial reporting standards. We investigate stakeholder perceptions on the nature and scope of any such developed standards, interpreting our findings through the lens of moral legitimacy. Using an international online survey of stakeholders involved in NPO financial reporting, we analyse 605 responses from 179 countries. Based on our findings, we argue that diverse stakeholder groups, especially those who are involved with NPO financial reporting in developing countries, are likely to grant moral legitimacy to developed NPO international accounting standards if the consequences are to enhance NPO accounting and accountability information, subject to agreement as to whether all or only NPOs of a certain size should comply and whether any such standards should be mandatory.

Nonprofits have unique strategic concerns, including their dependence on external resources, the management of multiple stakeholders, perceptions about their organizational legitimacy as well as their primary focus on the social value of their organizational mission (Stone and Brush 1996). For shared Jewish–Arab organizations in Israel that are seeking to promote a ‘shared society,’ the obstacles in navigating these various challenges are particularly pronounced and require a very unique kind of adaptive capacity (see Letts et al. 1999; Connolly and York 2003; Strichman et al. 2007). Often operating outside of the general consensus, these organizations are faced with the significant challenge of promoting values of partnership, equality and mutual interests among two populations that are often at odds. This research seeks to shed light on how shared Arab–Jewish nonprofits are continually working to strengthen organizational capacities to more effectively carry out their particular organizational mission, given the myriad of challenges they face.

By applying the concept of participatory spaces, this article maps and analyzes current research on mental health service user organizations (MHSUOs). We have analyzed research literature from 2006 to 2016 to examine how the role of and challenges facing MHSUOs are formulated in the post-deinstitutional era. The current situation is marked by MHSUOs parallel presence in invited, claimed and popular spaces for participation. The post-deinstitutional era is characterized by a shift in focus from gaining access to such participatory spaces, to critically examining the political opportunities available in these. We further argue that the dominance of psychiatry-specific spaces could prevent MHSUOs from fully exploring their potential for participation in broader social issues.

The nonprofit sector in China has experienced unprecedented growth in its scope and impact over the past four decades. Despite the significant growth, the distribution of nonprofit activities across localities is not well understood. This study combines administrative and census data to examine the size of the Chinese nonprofit sector across 334 prefectures. The study demonstrates a significant variation in nonprofit sector size across prefectures. The study further shows that population heterogeneity, government social spending, and government fragmentation have positive effects on boosting nonprofit sector size in a prefecture. Although diverse service needs affect the growth of the Chinese nonprofit sector, government activities play a more important role in mobilizing nonprofit activities and driving nonprofit sector growth.

With a history of civic associations turned political, and an ongoing sociopolitical transformation in Egypt, social entrepreneurship (SE) has proliferated as an alternative to traditional forms of civic engagement such as charities on one hand and open activism on the other. Yet, situated between a desire for change, and the overpowering state and market logics, SE has been both limited and shaped by neoliberal and local-authoritarian visions. Using Egypt as the case, this study combines in-depth interviews with civil society practitioners, and field observation at an SE incubator, to examine how SE came to embody a desire for change using publicly sanctioned logics, all while enacting practices that preserve/revitalize a social movement in abeyance. By examining SE as part of a larger phenomenon in this particular moment of transition, this timely research allows us to investigate a link between social movements and SE not as two separate phenomena but as different ways of approaching the same thing: creating social transformation.

In order to deal with “wicked problems” like inequality and social exclusion, one needs the support of committed citizens (Brandsen et al. in Manufactured civil society: practices, principles and effects, Palgrave, London, 2014). A promising setting to examine to what extent this is the case is that of community development projects in derelict neighbourhoods where the largest representation of ‘marginalised’ citizens can often be found (Head in Community development: theory and method of planned change, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1979; Needham in Personal co-production, 2009). In this article, we examine to what extent citizens are actually involved in local co-productive community development projects (in the city of Ghent, Belgium), and how professional field workers influence this engagement. We focus on three different potential effects of co-productive community development (inclusion and empowerment of citizen co-producers and the equity in the benefits they receive), and whether professional support can influence these effects. We find that co-production in community development projects may lead to more inclusion, empowerment and equity. Moreover, it is posited that the presence of professionals in their different roles does have a positive impact on co-productive community development.

As Tocqueville observed the emergence of democracy in the USA, he noted the central role religion played in undergirding democratic life. Nearly 200 years later, it is unclear whether religion continues to possess sufficient capacity to promote democratic engagement. This study links organizational theory with research on the structural and cultural characteristics of civil society organizations (CSOs) to assess the current impact of religion on democracy. It analyzes original data from a national study of politically oriented CSOs to determine whether drawing on structural characteristics of religious congregations and cultural elements of religion helps the organizations promote democratic engagement. The analysis finds a positive relationship between organizations that incorporate structural and cultural forms of religion and their organizing capacity, political access, and mobilizing capacity. These findings suggest that religion, mediated by congregations and religious culture, retains sufficient civic vitality to help politically oriented CSOs foster democratic engagement.

This is a book review of Ebenezer Obadare’s “Humor, Silence and Civil Society in Nigeria.” It examines conceptual issues around the role of civil society in Nigeria, the nexus (or lack thereof) between ngo’s and civil society, and the roles that humor and silence play as roles of agency in how a population responds to oppression and the suppression of dissent.

In this study, we investigate why individuals in need of social support refrain from asking for help from social service providers in the third sector. This phenomenon of non-take-up of social support is still underexplored, and our theoretical understanding of it is highly fragmented. Based on psychological, socio-epidemiological, socio-cultural, and public administration research, we distil potential determinants of non-take-up of social support. Based on 55 narratives (individual interviews) and two focus groups (n = 16) in the Dutch municipality of The Hague, we examine empirical evidence for these determinants. Our results indicate that (perceived) bureaucratic obstacles and the desire to maintain one’s (feeling of) independence are critical barriers to help-seeking behaviour for social support from third sector social service providers. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and their implications for practice and propose new research avenues.

Despite the growing research interest in co-production, some important gaps in our knowledge remain. Current literature is mainly concerned with either the citizens or professionals being involved in co-production, leaving unanswered the question how co-producers and professionals perceive each other’s engagement, and how this is reflected in their collaboration. This study aims to answer that question, conducting an exploratory case study on neighborhood watch schemes in a Dutch municipality. Empirical data are collected through group/individual interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. The results show that the perceptions citizens and professionals hold on their co-production partner’s engagement indeed impact on the collaboration. Moreover, for actual collaboration to occur, citizens and professionals not only need to be engaged but also to make this engagement visible to their co-production partner. The article concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of these findings.

The organizational culture of nonprofit organizations is affected by the context in which they are embedded. Based on a qualitative study of local civic associations in Novosibirsk, Russia, this article illustrates how nonprofit organizational culture has been shaped by historical and contemporary social and cultural conditions. The fluid situation for civil society in Russia has generated varied organizational culture across nonprofits. Interview data reveal different value orientations, distinct group identities, and different images of the ideal civic association: as a social establishment, as an outlet for self-expression, as a network of experts, or as a social startup. This resulting diversity of organizational culture has implications for the potential for partnerships among nonprofits, between nonprofits and government, between nonprofits and businesses, and also for the organizational survival of nonprofits in this setting.

‘Service user involvement’ is a widespread and well-known phenomenon within welfare policy and practice in Western countries and is usually perceived as a way of improving welfare services to better aid service users in managing their predicaments. However, the presented ethnographical study of service user involvement within a Swedish psychiatry organization shows that user involvement initiatives might also result in unintended and undesired effects on the collective user movement (i.e. the service user organizations involved in the activities). The analysis suggests that initiatives on user involvement might affect both the constitution of the user movement as well as the way the movement operates. Theoretically co-optation theory informs the analysis.

Key functions of civil society organizations (CSOs) are to criticize governments and to hold them to account. Recent trends of privatization and contracting out challenge CSOs’ opportunities to voice such criticism. The purpose of this article is to analyse whether and why CSOs ‘hold back their criticism’ of public authorities, and how a compromised advocacy can be linked to financial, organizational and institutional factors. The article draws on an original survey of 2678 Swedish CSOs. The analyses show that certain levels of funding make CSOs more likely to hold back in their criticism, but also organizational and institutional factors play a role. The results identify the importance of distinguishing between objective and subjective factors related to how dependency is framed. It is the felt needs, experiences and perceptions of CSOs themselves that make hem prone to the strategic choice to hold back criticism of public authorities.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between boards of directors and innovation in nonprofit organizations. The results showed that not only board attribute variables and board process variables were directly related to innovation, but they also had a potential to affect innovation and capacity for innovation indirectly—through board effectiveness. Board culture (critical questioning), social capital (structural and cognitive), human capital, and diversity in industrial background were significantly related to innovation, accounting for 29.8% of its variance. Board culture (decision-making process and critical questioning), social capital (structural and cognitive), cohesiveness, and human capital were significantly related to capacity for innovation, accounting for 49.8% of its variance. The mediating effect of board effectiveness was partially confirmed. The effects of board culture (critical questioning), cognitive social capital, and human capital on innovation and capacity for innovation were either partially or fully transmitted through board effectiveness. Based on the results of this study, practice implications are discussed. The author wants to thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions for improving the manuscript and Jinn Jonp (JJ) Bau, Ph.D. from OIBR at the University of Georgia for helping with statistical analyses.

In this study, we analyse whether there are differences in attitudes towards nonprofit organizations (NPOs) between the generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. We do so by analysing survey data from Switzerland in two steps, a Bayesian estimation as well as a cluster analysis. The overall results suggest that there are, at best, only few and small intergenerational differences: the only consistent effect we find are the more negative attitudes of the Baby Boomer cohort towards professional associations and towards sports NPOs, but those differences could be due to life cycle rather than intergenerational effects. Overall, our results suggest that the Millennial generational cohort is at least as interested in and willing to engage with NPOs as previous generational cohorts.

As part of a social change agenda, nonprofit organisations engage in activities that contribute to debate and influence the development of public policy. This article presents the initial findings from a study investigating whether nonprofit organisations do participate in advocacy activities and if they do, how are they advocating and engaging in public debate without risking their current and future sources of funding. The key findings from the research have identified that the extent of advocacy by the nonprofit organisations studied has not diminished. A model, built on the findings from the literature on how nonprofit organisations approach advocacy, is applied to explain the advocacy activities by the case study organisations. These nonprofit organisations are identifying what they see to be the appropriate advocacy strategies to fit their organisational objectives, policies, funding sources and resources.

Civil society strengthening programs aim to foster democratic governance by supporting civil society organization (CSO) engagement in advocacy. However, critics claim that these programs foster apolitical and professional organizations that have weak political effects because they do not mobilize citizen participation. This literature focuses on how donor programs lead to low legitimacy of CSOs with citizens, limiting the means to develop agency toward the state. Here I investigate the influence of CSO legitimacy with donors and citizens on civic agency. Empirical research was conducted in Bosnia–Herzegovina on CSOs considered legitimate by donors, citizens, and both. I found that different forms of legitimacy were associated with different strategies and agency. CSOs with both forms of legitimacy, which have not received much attention until now, turned out to be of particular interest. These CSOs demonstrated agency as intermediaries between donors, government, and citizens, which enabled greater agency and broader outcomes.