Healthcare Quarterly

Healthcare Quarterly 1(3) March 1998 : 62-63.doi:10.12927/hcq..16584
Commentary

Accountability of Foundations - The Regulators are Hovering and the Public Wants Results

Jim Hilborn

Abstract

The appointment last October of former federal NDP Leader Ed Broadbent to chair a national panel to examine "accountability and governance in the Canadian voluntary sector" was greeted enthusiastically by the sector, but it was still only one of the latest in a series of significant developments.

In a late-1996 Compas survey commissioned by Revenue Canada, 71 per cent of the respondents saw a need for greater nonprofit accountability. In fact a broad range of accountability issues are now on the table: for governments, individuals, and nonprofits. The public is demanding that all aspects of a foundation's existence - from its fundamental mission to the efficiency of its operation, how it treats its employees and the routes it take to achieve its goals - be subject to intense and continual scrutiny. Volunteers and donors, members and staff, partners, governments, patients and the general public all want to know that these organizations are responsive to their needs, well and ethically managed, and accountable.

 

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