Rechnungslegung gemeinnütziger Organisationen. Eine empirische Untersuchung zu Merkmalen und Rechnungslegung gemeinnütziger Organisationen in Deutschland

The nonprofit sector has expanded within the last decade. In order to be able to prevail within this competition for financial means, transparency of the not-for-profit sector has increased during the last years, which is partly due to initiatives like Transparency Germany as well as the DZI Seal-of-Approval. Until now, harmonised disclosure obligations are still lacking in Germany for not-for-profit organisations. In regard to financial reporting requirements, associations as well as foundations are only required to prepare a cash-based statement of income and expenses as well as a balance sheet, to which they have to give access to only to their members (in case of associations). To examine the financial reporting practices which are applied in practice, an analysis was conducted in 2009, whose results were updated by this study by means of a full-survey. In addition, the extent to which charitable organisations apply the suggestions of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW) in regard to financial accounting and reporting of fund-raising organisations was examined.