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Accountability: Breaches and Trust

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Synonyms

Answerability; Board governance; Duty; Ethical obligation; Ethics; Fraud; Liability; Misconduct; Responsibility.

Definition

Accountability: The obligation to act responsibly and with transparency

Breach of trust: A violation of accepted duties, by action or inaction, both intentionally or inadvertently

Introduction

Nonprofit organizations are accountable to multiple and frequently competing stakeholders – both in theory and in practice. In the general sense, accountability is being responsible, transparent, and responding to stakeholders, which may be challenging for nonprofits who must answer to numerous stakeholders including funders, program participants, employees, and taxpayers. Realistically, this means that acting in a responsible manner in the eyes of one stakeholder may be, or appear to be, in conflict with acting responsibly to another stakeholder. Regardless, nonprofit organizations should strive to both act responsibly and with transparency. What happens if they...

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Correspondence to Faith Butta .

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Butta, F., Carman, J.G. (2017). Accountability: Breaches and Trust. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2774-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2774-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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