Nonprofit governance and accountability practices. A comparative analysis between Italy and France

If we consider an international perspective, Italian and French nonprofit sectors present some comparable characteristics, even though with many differences. In this exploratory study we aim to analyse the relationships between some characteristics of governance and accountability and the capacity of the nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to collect private and public financial resources. We use regression models on two separate random samples of 50 NPOs for each country. Data sources are different for the two contexts analysed. Evidences show that the differences in the practices of governance and accountability in Italy and France can impact on the relevance and significance of the studied characteristics, such as CEO duality, CEO gender, board meetings, board committees, type of accountability and the use of social networks. Other variables are significant in both the countries (board size and basis of financial accounting). In a period of great changes in Italian and French nonprofit sectors, the actors of third sector could have indications about the influence of some governance and accountability practices on the performances of organizations that operate for a social purpose.