ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on characteristics shared by third sector organisations but characteristics that generate challenges for those governing and managing third sector organisations, challenges that are hardly found within the public or the for-profit sectors. Third sector organisations generally were started by people who shared certain values. These values may be part of religious beliefs; they may arise from a deep concern for the world’s environment or be an expression of solidarity. Most third sector organisations rely entirely on voluntary effort to do their job. This is entirely unlike business and government organisations. One of the major challenges that emerges from the distinctive character of third sector organisations concerns accountability. Public-serving third sector organisations in Australia have toyed with the thought that they should be accountable to a number of different groups. A final challenge, a perennial challenge for those third sector organisations that employ staff, is tension, often conflict, between senior staff and the board or management committee.
