Efficiency of Irish charities: insights through data envelopment analysis

Martin Quinn; Brendan Clerkin; Ciaran Connolly; Carmen Martínez

doi:10.52399/001c.126975

Efficiency of Irish charities: insights through data envelopment analysis

Martin Quinn, Brendan Clerkin, Ciaran Connolly, Carmen Martínez

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Abstract

Pressure on charities to explain their performance is pervasive. While data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely applied, its use in charity research is limited, possibly due to difficulties in obtaining beneficiary data. Utilising a conventional DEA model, we incorporate beneficiary information as independent variables to assess the relative efficiency of a sample of Irish charities. Four of our eight variables (activity sector, online accounting information availability, staff numbers and cost per employee) were found to be significant determinants of efficiency. Our findings provide valuable insights into charity efficiency, suggesting DEA is useful for beneficiaries, donors, regulators, trustees and researchers.

Original language	English
Number of pages	29
Journal	Accounting, Finance and Governance Review
Volume	33
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.52399/001c.126975
Publication status	Published - 31 Dec 2024

Keywords

charity
efficiency
data envelopment analysis
DEA
nonprofit organisation
NPO
accountability

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10.52399/001c.126975Licence: CC BY-NC

Efficiency of Irish charities: insights through data envelopment analysis
Copyright 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 515 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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Efficiency of Irish charities: insights through data envelopment analysis

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