Conclusions: nonprofit accountability clubs

Abstract

Nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (nonprofits, in short) have emerged as important actors across a wide range of policy areas. Along with their contribution to economic growth and democracy (Putnam, 1993), some view them as the key pillars of the emerging world society (Meyer et al., 1997) and world culture. Given their policy potential and the policy hype that has often surrounded them, nonprofits have attracted significant levels of resources from governments, intergovernmental organizations, foundations, citizens, and corporations. The expectations for what nonprofits can accomplish are quite high, especially given the inadequate success of both market-based and government-based approaches in solving pressing policy problems.