Financial Management and Accountability in Small, Religiously Affiliated Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract

Although small, religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations share financial management and accountability challenges with other small nonprofit organizations, they tend to face issues and problems that differ from those of small secular nonprofit organizations. Exploratory research methods were used to develop hypotheses about the nature and likely origins of the financial management challenges of small, religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations. The article delineates financial management and accountability challenges common to all small nonprofit organizations and contrasts them to small businesses. It then proposes and discusses the hypothesized origins of financial management and accountability issues unique to or different in small, religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations. A life-cycle framework for small religious nonprofits is developed and differentiated from the life cycle of small secular nonprofit organizations. A small survey provided supportive, but not statistically significant, results, showing that larger small, religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations are more likely to have separate budgets and accounting records.