Audit value and charitable organizations

Karen Kitching

Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 2009, vol. 28, issue 6, 510-524

Abstract: I examine whether donors favor charities that use high quality auditors and whether the propensity to donate varies directly with audit quality. I find that audit quality affects donor decisions in the market for contributions. From a signaling perspective, charities benefit simply from engaging a higher quality auditor. From an information perspective, donors are more sensitive to changes in reported accounting information verified by a high quality auditor. I also find that, after conditioning on the charity's reputation, donors are still willing to give more to charities aligned with a quality auditor, but the effect of audit quality choice dissipates with the size of the charity. Thus, a charity's reputation and the choice of auditor are substitute mechanisms for signaling the credibility of financial information to donors.

Keywords: Audit; value; Nonprofit; accounting; Charity; Program; ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jappol:v:28:y::i:6:p:510-524

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