Citation

Brown LK, Troutt E. Int. J. Public Admin. 2004; 27(5): 309-330.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1081/PAD-120028812

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Can government's need for nonprofit accountability be accomplished without diminishing nonprofit organizations’ ability to pursue their goals of responsiveness and flexibility? The conventional view argues that governments’ accountability objectives conflict with nonprofits’ objectives, implying that there must be some tradeoff. This article adopts the emerging alternative view in which the two parties’ objectives are jointly pursued through a cooperative process. The analysis of a provincial funding program in Manitoba, Canada, presented here, provides evidence that such an approach is not only possible but also efficient. The program analyzed rests on a sustained cooperative process in which government officials and nonprofit managers jointly define goals and establish constraints.