1 Empirical Analysis on Preferences of Donors to Financial Information of Civil Society Organizations

There have been numerous empirical studies conducted in Western countries regarding the financial information valued by donor stakeholders. In contrast, few such researches have been conducted in Japan despite the current discussions on the expansion of the preferential tax treatment of charitable giving and the introduction of relevant accounting standards. Using a survey this paper investigates the trend where donors seek financial information and reveals what information they value. The survey shows that donors prefer a financial structure with a large program revenue and that they subjectively consider revenue from charitable giving as important. The data also indicate an inconsistency regarding donors’ preferences for financial data when deciding to donate. As a result, we were able to reveal the latent decision criteria of donors and can conclude that it would be useful to design a management policy for nonprofit organizations and to disclose appropriate information.