Some problems of czech nonprofit sector transparency

Current development of non-profit sector is causing enhanced need for non-profit organizations transparency. Most frequent legal form among Czech non-profit organizations is civic association; it represents nine tenths of all Czech non-profits. Therefore, the aim of presented study was to determine current level of transparency in Czech civic associations. Within the defined aim were formulated five research questions focused on the website availability of: (1) the website itself; (2) clear definition of organization∞s purpose of existence; (3) other basic information on organization (statutes, annual reports, etc.); (4) information on donations; and (5) reports and information on economical matters of organization. The research was conducted through a content analysis of websites on the sample of organizations (n=1,528) obtained through the random selection from the official database. The results showed that a website has less than a third of organizations (32.6 %), approximately three-quarters (77.8 %) then keep their websites current. The purpose of existence is rather not disclosed, since the mission was published only in one third (32.2 %) of cases and the visions were disclosed only in 5.3 % of organizations. The basic organizational documents were more often presented the statutes (26.9 %) than the annual reports (9.8 %). However, the donors have been published in 38.0 % of cases, only 3.0 % of organizations published not only the donor, but also donated amount. The worst situation exists in availability of economic records and information, financial statements were published only in 7.9 % of organizations, and a transparent account was available in 1.5 % of cases. Some study findings showed a slight improvement in web transparency of non-profits to compare with similar research made by T. Rohrbacher in 2008. Other findings are new in this area, though still not be subject to comparison, approaching the level of transparency of Czech non-profit organizations