Methods of Enhancing Accountability

This article originated as an article by the same name prepared by Lucy O. Chang for the NGO Handbook.

Given the growing reach and importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), it is essential that they utilize consistent and thorough methods aimed at ensuring accountability to their various stakeholders: donors, their own charter or mandate and staff, and last but certainly not least, the communities and clients they seek to help and serve. Particularly in this age of constant media influence, lapses in NGO accountability frameworks or lack of such frameworks altogether resulting in scandal can cause the public to lose faith in these institutions, thus ruining the reputation and ability of similar organizations to raise money and truly enact change.

One example of such public scandal was that of United Way of America, where then-CEO William Aramony was found guilty of 25 felony charges including conspiracy to defraud the United Way, filing false tax returns and falsifying records to hide the diversion of money; among other things, he used charitable donations to finance a lavish life style, including trips on the Concorde and an expensive condominium. United Way was hurt both by its affiliates delaying payment of voluntary dues to the national organization and public charitable contributions to both United Way and its affiliates dropping up to 30%.

Yet another example is that of American Parkinson Disease Association, where then-CEO Frank Williams was found to have quietly embezzled contribution checks worth more than one million dollars over a seven-year period. (For further information on individual scandals and their impact on these NGOs, please refer to Gibelman and Gelman’s work, Very Public Scandals: An Analysis of How and Why Nongovernmental Organizations Get in Trouble, which notes some areas in which traditional accountability and governance measures have failed.)

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