Nonprofits are scrambling to account for their fiscal policies, management structure, and the value of their missions. This current crisis of accountability is only the most recent manifestation of a problem that has plagued voluntary organizations for over a century. A historical perspective reveals more about the issue of accountability than tax exemption, the ubiquity of nonprofits, or greed and insensibility among nonprofits and their employees. Four fundamental issues can be identified: the variety of constituencies to which nonprofits are accountable, conflict over the allocation of resources, the matter of exclusivity, and two additional sources of conflict of values. The periodic crises of accountability faced by nonprofits reveal that the conflicts inherent in nonprofits are constantly being negotiated, necessarily leading to a dynamic, ever-shifting system of nonprofit organization and of interorganizational relationships. The nonprofit sector provides an arena in which these conflicts can be negotiated.
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