Structure and accountability a study of national nonprofit associations

Abstract

In the 199Os, the integrity and performance of nonprojt organizations in the United States have come increasingly under attack, and there are new calls to hold nonprofit organizations more accountable for their behavior and performance. This article reports on a study of the organizational structures of national nonprofit associations and asks how these umbrella organizations can help to self-regulate the sector through appropriate checks and balances between the national organization and local affiliates. The authors identify a number of differences in how associations with alternative structures hold local affiliates and national organizations responsiblefor their performances, and they conclude that structure is an avenue of self-regulation for nonprofit organizations deservingfurther attention. HE 1990s have so far been a rough decade for nonprofit organizations in the United States. Having inherited from the T 1980s a legacy of a full and growing agenda of social problems, and a stringent fiscal environment of restricted government funding and fierce competition for private contributions, nonprofits have now been challenged where it hurts most-their very integrity has been called into question.Spurred by scandals at United Way of America (Glaser, 1994) and Convenant House (Sennott, 1992), the sector is now widely attacked, in the press and elsewhere, for a variety of alleged failings including inappropriately high executive compensation, excessive administrative and fundraising costs, failure to serve poor or other Note: The authors acknowledge the Nonprofit Sector Fund of the Aspen Institute for its support of this research. They also thank Laurel Shoaf, Natasha Belinskaya, and Dirk Holsopple for able research assistance.

Patterns of governance structures in trade associations and unions

“…As mentioned above, Young, Bania and Bailey (1996) show that different structures have an influence on the accountability of the association. They show that affiliates in centralized structures have less influence over the national office than affiliates in federal structures.…”

“…In various cases, literature gives insight into how structures influence the management of associations. Young, Bania and Bailey (1996) analyzed the influence of structures on the accountability of umbrella organizations and their local affiliates. Coleman and Grant (1988) argued that centralized and representative structures give trade associations a higher influence on politics.…”

Understanding the work beliefs of nonprofit executives through organizational stories

“…Young, Bania, and Bailey (1996) reported in their study of 829 nonprofit associations that the need for change usually occurs when nonprofits are under tremendous attack for inefficient management and failure to fulfill their service missions effectively. This study offers an important insight for HRD scholars and practitioners into how to support nonprofit executives and their organizations during critical challenges.…”

“…With a dwindling volunteer population, greater reliance on permanent staff, and demand for improved organizational structure and greater accountability (McFarland, 1999;Young, Bania, and Bailey, 1996), our expertise is called upon to help these agencies more carefully align personnel requirements and organizational structures with missions and business objectives (Sheehan, 1996). To nurture cultures in which new systems of performance management can thrive, HRD professionals must understand the assumptions and goals of nonprofits in general and of their executives in particular.…”

Managing Multisite Nonprofits

“…We are less concerned with the economic rationale of its origins and existence (Oster, 1992(Oster, , 1996, and, unlike Young (1989Young ( , 1996Young ( , 1998, in this issue), we are focused on analyzing behavior and prescribing actions at the level of a multisite system rather than across multisite systems.…”