Accountability and disclosure in not for profit organizations, evidence from Egypt

It is widely recognized that we currently have very little knowledge of what is reported outside the financial statements by Egyptian charities and even less understanding of why it is reported. This represents a crucial gap in our knowledge, since accounting narratives have become a major element in the reporting model, in both business and the charity sector. This paper, therefore, presents a timely investigation of the disclosure practices and its drivers by Egyptian NPOs through a set of interviews with the finance directors and specialties in NPOs in Egypt. The paper provides a preliminary analysis of a set of interviews with the finance directors of NPOs, which investigate the drivers of such disclosure. Findings revealed that, although their annual report and annual reviews are channels of communicating information to all types of stakeholders, the NPOs appear to view the individual documents as having different disclosure purposes, e.g. in terms of their target audience and the motivations for such reports. In term of Expenses and Income, it is obligatory to be disclosed by the force of the law. In term of Accountability, any item that is disclosed is important for accountability in NPOsSupervised by: Dr/ Tarek Alshazl