Non-profit Governance

Abstract

The non-profit governance literature is emerging, multilevel, and disparate. This chapter provides a critical review of the scholarly literature on non-profit governance, identifies the distinctive and currently most important theoretical frameworks in the field, and outlines the models of good non-profit governance that have emerged, discussing their main traits. The chapter also examines the positions and roles ascribed in the literature to constituents, stakeholders, and other claimant groups involved in non-profit organisations and develops a novel approach to distinguishing between analytically different categories of claimants. The approach is proposed as a tool for future non-profit governance research. After acknowledging the limitations of its scope and identifying upcoming issues in non-profit governance, the chapter concludes with discussion of three lacunae in the current scholarship on non-profit governance that need to be addressed.