ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE 3rd SECTOR -
TRANSPARENCY IN GERMANY
AND THE ROLE OF NEW ICT
Stefanie Dobbertin, Berlin
Series of International Conferences Friedrich Ebert Foundation Lisbon
Civil Society Organizations: Transparency and Responsibility
Lisbon, 5th May 2009

...early approaches
instruments to institutionalise transparency in Germany
organizational
mission related
financial
effectiveness of existing instruments - „transparency culture“?
criticial factors of success for „self - regulated“ ICT systems
to establish transparency in the third sector
Stefanie Dobbertin, Accountability in the third sector - Challenges of institutionalisation of transparency with special focus on GuideStar Germany, Berlin 2005 (published in
german)

Third Sector in Germany
more than 400.000 public benefit organizations and local
initiatives
main legal forms: registered associations and foundations
corporatist model - subsidiarity as central principle
large and old organizations highly involved in the welfare state
services
direct (grants) & indirect (tax-exemption) public funding

Fiscal Regulation Instruments
„public benefit status“ by public register of
tax authorities foundations
TEXT
public
benefit
NGO
federal legislations of public register of
collecting charitable associations
donation

Self-Regulation Initiatives
German
evaluative initiatives non-evaluative initiatives
Codes of Conduct -
Certification & Accreditation -
German Donation Committee,
(DZI)
German Fundraising Association, VENRO
Watchdogs - online databases -
Rating Agencies GuideStar Germany

Criteria of accreditation/ Codes of Conduct
certification by DZI German Donation Committee
- prerequisite for application: - prerequisite for membership:
public benefit status of NPO public benefit status of NPO
1. True and clear fundraising I. True and clear fundraising
2. Transparent accounting 2. Reasonable fundraising techniques
3. Allocation of resources: 3. Allocation of resources:
economical & purpose related economical & purpose related
4. Internal controlling 4. Accounting compliance with law
5. No commisson for fundraisers 5. Transparent statements on
fundraising & administration costs
evaluated transparency on standards no evaluation - lobby for members

Database: GuideStar
German model started 2005
mission: making civil society visible
using standardized reporting
framework
financial statements, tax-
statement, annual reports of
activities /volunteers
federal strategy: beta database up
to 1000 NPO from Berlin

Challenges of Implementation Process
unlike USA/ UK not linked to government registry
reluctant transparency culture in Germany of sharing financial data
quantity and quality of volunteer data of NPO
accelarating development of other web 2.0 - communties, databases

German ways towards transparency
„blind trust“ vs. „informed trust“
combination of fiscal control and self-regulation
(public-benefit-status as prerequisite for application/
membership)
mixture of direct, accredited and non-evaluative
transparency
still no legal requirements of transparent reporting
still no comparable format

Role of new ICT
social communities
WEB
PEER-TO- MICRO-
2.0
PEER PHILANTHROPY
Transparency/
Accountability?

Micro-Philanthropy: social Online communities...
more than 1.500 charitable
organizations
http://www.helpedia.de/

Trust your Peer: social online communities...
http://www.betterplace.org/

ICT: Globalisation of charitable donation market
new forms of online fundraising - global(mirco) project funding
dealing with a large number of interactions efficiently
easy access for donors (living-room-donating) - new stakeholders
no longterm relations between donors and NPO
visable through information: mainly smaller local NPO benefit
Which organization is reasonable?

Enabling transparency through ICT?
NPO should exploit new ICT to its full potential in providing
information to achieve goals and stakeholders (direct transparency)
the sector should be enabled to be part of the solution creating
transparency & accountability
combination of fiscal regulation & self-regulation
self-regulation by cooperation of non evaluative databases and social
online communities

Thank you for your attention!
Obrigado muito para sua atenção!
STEFANIE DOBBERTIN, BERLIN
ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE 3rd SECTOR - TRANSPARENCY IN GERMANY AND
THE ROLE OF NEW ICT