Steering International NGOs through Time: The Influence of Temporal Structuring in Government Accountability Requirements

Abstract

Relying on qualitative interview data from three U.S.-based government-funded international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), this article explores the temporal structuring, that is, the timing of governmental accountability requirements and their impact on nonprofit organizations. The article reports that, entrenched within government accountability requirements and expectations are temporal structures that serve as powerful levers for influencing, ensuring, and verifying INGOs' financial integrity and stewardship of the federal dollars awarded to them. The article draws the following conclusion: that government's accountability practices are operationalized through ex ante, mid-course, and ex post temporal structures, all of which, combined with verification and explanatory accountability processes, effectively serve to steer, direct, and control the managerial and operational decisions of INGOs.