Charitable organizations are often evaluated by donors and regulators based on various efficiency ratios, including the program ratio. We explore whether charities conform to donor pressure to maintain or improve program ratios when allocating resources. We use a sample of 5,626 charities...

This study surveys 200 nonprofit executives to investigate the pressure they experience to manage so-called efficiency ratios. Specifically, we investigate whether managers' perceptions of such pressure depends on the type of contributors and on manager characteristics. We measure pressure in...

We survey 200 nonprofit executives to investigate the pressure they experience to manage so-called efficiency ratios, and their reactions to that pressure. Specifically, we investigate whether managers' perceptions of donor pressure are influenced by 1) the degree to which they rely on...

We study how charities adjust spending when revenues change. Understanding the decision to spend or save revenues provides insights into management behavior and resource allocations. Our results indicate that, on average, the marginal change in overall spending is substantially less than the...

This paper identifies a helpful red flag stakeholders can use to detect whether a nonprofit has potentially managed its financial information. This red flag is reporting an identical program ratio – that is, the NPO reports the exact same ratio in multiple years – while reporting a large...