How can charity reporting regulation be developed alongside the sector?

What is it about?

This article examines how charities can be encouraged to communicate their 'good work' through regulating performance reporting. Using a longitudinal approach it analyses the co-regulatory tools used by early developers - New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The theoretical framework is Kane’s regulatory dialectics, but we found a more partnered and less adversarial process than he suggests.

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Why is it important?

Prior research shows that charities need to be encouraged to report on their performance, to meet their stakeholders' needs and maintain public trust in charities. In this article we show how two regulators developed that regulation in conjunction with the charity sector, in order to enhance their legitimacy and thus, charities’ compliance. The co-regulation, regulatee representation on regulatory bodies, formal and informal interactions, and regulatee advocacy for regulatory developments, blurs the boundaries between regulator and regulatee. It impacts significantly on the resulting regulation and improves acceptance of (and compliance with) mandatory requirements. Our model of new governance regulatory dialectics can support practitioners in developing new governance regulation, and further research and theorization of this important area.

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