Challenging the accountability agenda: what increases an NGO’s trustworthiness?

When it comes to a non-governmental organisation’s trustworthiness, there is an unexplored assumption in the literature that the implementation of accountability measures will increase trust. Vincent Charles Keating and Erla Thrandardottir explain why this ‘accountability solution’ may not in itself increase trust, and that it could actually harm it

NGOs, trust, and the accountability agenda

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are undergoing an alleged crisis of trustworthiness. The past decades have seen an increase in both academic and practitioner scepticism, particularly given the transformations many NGOs have undergone in size, professionalism, and political importance. The accountability agenda, which stresses transparency and external oversight, has gained a significant amount of traction as a means to solve this crisis. But the causal link between the implementation of these recommendations and increased trustworthiness among donors has never been considered. This article bridges this gap by drawing on theoretical innovations in trust research to put forward three arguments. First, the proponents of the accountability agenda are implicitly working with a rational model of trust. Second, this model does not reflect important social characteristics of trust between donors and NGOs. Third, this mismatch means that the accountability agenda might do more to harm trust in NGOs than to help it. </jats:p