Navigating Hostility: The Effect of Nonprofit Transparency and Accountability on Donor Preferences in the Face of Shrinking Civic Space
通过一项针对美国潜在捐赠者的联合实验，研究发现政府批评和法律限制会降低个人对海外受困非营利组织的捐赠意愿，但财务透明和问责制能缓解这一负面效应。
Governments across the world have increasingly used laws to restrict the work of nonprofits, which has led to a reduction in public or official foreign aid directed toward these groups. Many international nonprofits, in response, have turned to individual donors to offset the loss of traditional funding. What are individual donors’ preferences regarding donating to legally besieged nonprofits abroad? We conducted a conjoint experiment on a nationally representative sample of likely donors in the United States and found that learning about host government criticism and legal restrictions on nonprofits decreases individuals’ preferences to donate to them. However, organizational features such as financial transparency and accountability can protect against this dampening effect. Our results have important implications both for understanding private international philanthropy and how nonprofits can better frame their fundraising appeals at a time when they are facing restrictive civic spaces and hostile governments abroad.