The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the Harvard Law School are joint sponsors of a five-year, $2million, University-wide research initiative on nonprofit governance and accountability.

The topic has become an urgent public-policy priority. Media attention has recently focused on highly visible cases of nonprofit malfeasance, and in the wake of corporate scandals that have renewed interest in corporate governance reforms for business, policy makers and nonprofit leaders alike have turned to the research community for ideas that can help improve nonprofit governance and accountability.  In the past several years alone, Congress has debated several sets of proposals aimed at deterring malfeasance and improving performance of nonprofits.  At the state level, a number of attorneys general have taken similar steps.

These potentially sweeping reform efforts, however, have outpaced the research, conceptual frameworks, and policy analyses now available to understand and improve nonprofit governance and accountability.  Working on two tracks, the project seeks to mobilize  the University's resources to begin closing that gap:

The Nonprofit Governance and Accountability Research Fund will award $1.5 million in grants to support outstanding research across the University over the next five years. Funded projects will produce working papers and journal articles that can inform the decisions of public policy makers and nonprofit leaders.  Proposals on a wide range of topics are welcome.  For more information, click here.

A project Working Group of faculty from the Hauser Center, Law School, Business School, and Kennedy School convenes several faculty seminars annually, as well as a larger conference every other year, to create a Community of Practice among researchers from the variety of disciplines that have a stake in governance and accountability.  For more information, click here.

If you have any questions about the Project,  please email the Project Manager William Ryan.

The project is funded with generous gifts to the Hauser Center from Gus and Rita Hauser and to the Harvard Law School from Finn Caspersen.