Trust and transparency: Accreditation and impact reporting by Canadian charities

This paper examines the correlation between two trust-building behaviours: public reporting of impact by Canadian charities through their annual reports and accreditation under Imagine Canada’s Standards Program. Quantitative methods using nominal level variables were used to examine the variance of reporting behaviour by charities with their accreditation status and size by revenue. Data were collected from the CRA website, charity websites, and by reviewing charity annual reports. The observed differences between accredited charities, not-yet-accredited charities, and non-accredited charities suggest that there may be additional factors underlying public reporting of impact.