What’s meant by transparency and accountability? Here are some helpful perspectives.. 

 

BY THE UK INSTITUTE OF FUNDRAISING

The UK professional membership body with over 500 members. 

ACCOUNTABILITY is about being responsible to someone for actions taken; about being able to explain, clarify and justify actions.  It implies that someone has a right to know and hold an organisation to account; and that the organisation has a duty to explain and account for its actions. o  Charities have this duty as they have a privileged status because their purposes must be for the benefit of the public.

TRANSPARENCY is about being easy to understand, and being open, frank and honest in all communications, transactions and operations.o  It is possible to be accountable by providing a lengthy and technical explanation of every detail, but if this information is not easily understood by the audience, and if key facts are hidden by the sheer volume of information then the information is not presented in a transparent form.  o  Accountability and transparency go hand-in-hand, and involve being aware of who charities are accountable to, what the important pieces of information are, and how they can be communicated most effectively.  (HRHG The point about too much can be seen in many annual reports by dioceses.)      

 

BY The Transparency & Accountability Initiative

 

A worldwide funder collaborative.

“There are many ways in which people and organisations might be held to account.  It is useful to think of an accountability relationship as having up to four stages. They identity these components:·     

Standard-setting Setting out the behaviour expected of the ‘accountee’ and the criteria by which they might validly be judged.·     

Investigation Exploring whether or not accountees have met the standards expected.·     Answerability A process in which accountees are required to defend their actions, face sceptical questions, and generally explain themselves. This applies both to negative or critical as well as to positive feedback.·     

Sanction A process in which accountees are in some way punished for falling below the standards expected of them (or perhaps rewarded for achieving or exceeding them). 

BY THE US National Roundtable on Church Management Leadership

“Although parishes and dioceses are private entities, they operate in the name of the Church in service to members and the community at large with support from the faithful and the general public.  As such, all parishes and dioceses should provide the faithful and the public with information about their mission, ministry program activities, and finances”. 

Standards for Excellence Code for the Catholic Sector and Canon Law booklet”

http://theleadershiproundtable.org/sfx/documents/Canon_law_commentary.pdf 

 

BY The Church Transparency Project

https://churchtransparency.org/what-is-transparency/

A group of lay Christian churchgoers from a variety of denominations, believing that improved transparency would increase donations, reduce opportunities for financial malfeasance, and provide a better Christian witness to the world.

 

“In the context of churches, transparency has two important components. The first is that the church’s finances be transparent, permitting congregants to see details about how their donations are spent, and the second is that the church be governed in a transparent fashion such that the congregation understands how and why decisions are made.”