Márcia R.C. Santos – Escola Superior de Ciências Empresarias at Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Portugal and Information
Sciences and Technologies and Architecture Research Center (ISTAR-IUL) at Instituto Universitário de
Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal
Rui Dias – Escola Superior de Ciências Empresarias at Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Portugal and CEFAGE-UE,
IIFA, University of Évora, Portugal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/EMAN.2021.49
5th International Scientific Conference – EMAN 2021 – Economics and Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, Online/Virtual, March 18, 2021, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; ISBN 978-86-80194-43-1, ISSN 2683-4510
Abstract:
Through accountability, organizations provide key information for stakeholders enabling the
latter to make an informed assessment of organizational performance. To achieve transparency, organizations
must make information accessible and timely. During the crisis, as in the COVID-19 pandemic
period, accurate accountability and transparency practices are most necessary so stakeholders can make
informed decisions in an ongoing complex emergency. This study uses data available in an online crowdfunding
platform to investigate to what extent are nonprofits implementing accountability and transparency
policies regarding applications for funds published during the COVID-19 pandemic. A case study
methodology is applied for providing evidence that nonprofits are not timely implementing transparency
policies regarding fundraising campaigns. Nevertheless, results identify, in some cases, innovative accountability
practices which impact funds raised must further be analyzed. These findings open up further
investigations on the accountability of nonprofits during the crisis and on the online organizational
transparency regarding fundraising.
Keywords:
COVID-19, Accountability, Transparency, Nonprofits. Crowdfunding.
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