Voluntary Adoption of Recommended Reporting Practices: Evidence from the Irish Nonprofit Sector

The UK Financial Reporting Council’s Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) provides a detailed nonprofit financial reporting framework for both the UK and Ireland. While adoption is mandatory in the UK, the Irish nonprofit sector currently operates under a voluntary financial reporting system. Using a sample of 23,124 nonprofit year observations for 6,593 unique Irish nonprofit organizations, we examine the determinants and funding consequences of voluntarily adopting the Charities SORP. In doing so, we show that there has been a steady increase in the adoption of Charities SORP, with use more than doubling between 2015 and 2020. We also show that Irish nonprofit organizations with more external oversight from regulators, auditors and funders as well as those with more resources are more likely to adopt Charities SORP. In terms of consequences, we find that organizations following Charities SORP receive more future funding support from both donors and government grantors. We also find that organizations are more likely to adopt Charities SORP when peer organizations in the same industry/county have already adopted SORP. Finally, we observe that donors reward smaller and educational organizations voluntarily adopting Charities SORP than larger, non-educational organizations.