Teaching Paper: Assessing and Strengthening Non-Profit Legitimacy

Legitimacy is a cornerstone of non-profit sustainability, shaping trust among donors, communities, governments, and beneficiaries. This Teaching Paper provides a structured framework for assessing legitimacy in practice, introducing five domains—legal, moral, representational, epistemic, and procedural—through practical audit checklists. Each tool enables managers and boards to diagnose organizational strengths and vulnerabilities, ensuring that compliance, ethics, participation, and credibility are systematically evaluated. The paper also addresses the balance between input legitimacy (inclusive processes) and output legitimacy (measurable results), supported by a real-world case study and reflection tools. By linking conceptual theory to practical instruments, this resource helps non-profits sustain trust, transparency, and long-term impact.