Efficiency of Irish Charities: Insights Through Data Envelopment Analysis

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.