CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS’ SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: DISCLOSURE EXTENT DETERMINANTS

Abstract

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) aim to involve civil society in social, cultural, and educational programs to promote cooperation between them and the community. To achieve their goals, it is important to demonstrate compliance with these goals through the activities they perform. Thus, the objective of this study was to identify the factors that determine the extent to which information representing the CSOs social responsibility is disclosed. To this end, based on the indicators raised by Silva and Seibert (2018), with observations on the websites, the CSOs disclosure index was calculated, a dependent variable, and, based on the hypotheses formulated, the explanatory and control variables were established to identify the disclosure determining factors through regression analysis. The results indicate externally audited CSOs, which have other boards in addition to the directors’ board in their governance structure and which have partnerships and are older, disclose more information representing social responsibility than other CSOs. On the other hand, those with an external advisor on the directors’ board and those are financial, disclose less information social responsibility representative than the other CSOs, not rejecting three of the six hypotheses formulated, confirming the legitimacy and political costs theories assumptions. The study brought contributions by deepening the knowledge about CSOs and for regulatory bodies, demonstrating the need for greater requirements regarding the disclosure of these organizations to meet the interests of their stakeholders.