The determinants of audit committees: evidence from the charity sector

Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of agency theory, institutional theory and resource dependency theory, this study finds that board attributes (consisting of the number of trustees and board structure), charity size, the nature of charitable activities, and external influences (namely proportion of restricted funds, presence of government funding and auditor quality) are all significantly positively associated with the annual report disclosure of audit committee existence. No relationship was found with either organizational legal form or donor dependence.