Charitable Solicitations Regulation and the Principles of Regulatory Disclosure

Barber Putnam () and Farwell Megan M. ()
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Barber Putnam: 732 17th Ave E, Seattle, Washington 98112, DC, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Farwell Megan M.: School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Nonprofit Policy Forum, 2016, vol. 7, issue 3, 311-338

Abstract: Today, many regulators’ operations publish information derived from registration and reporting by charitable organizations and commercial fundraising firms. Similar publication is found in a variety of situations – restaurant sanitation notices and hospital re-infection rates, among many others. Recent scholarship has explored the theory of regulatory disclosure, identifying how required disclosures can influence organizational behavior and potentially improve public welfare. An important feature of this theory is the “action cycle,” in which a requirement to disclose information about a process or product shapes consumers’ choices, in turn inducing suppliers to modify their behavior in a desired direction. In this paper, we sketch briefly three widespread approaches that have at different times characterized the regulators’ efforts, describe some of the inherent difficulties that regulators, whether independent or governmental, will encounter in connection with charitable activities, and explore the potential for constraining or eliminating abusive practices by required public disclosure of related information.

Keywords: charitable solicitations; state regulation (US); charitable organizations; fundraising (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1515/npf-2015-0017

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