Evolution of Non‐Financial Reporting in Non‐Profit Organizations: The State of the Art

ABSTRACT This study examines the evolution of non‐financial reporting in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and maps the intellectual and thematic development of the field. A scoping review was combined with bibliometric analysis and manual content analysis to examine 59 peer‐reviewed articles published between 2014 and 2026. Results indicate that research has progressively shifted from a narrow focus on voluntary disclosure and transparency toward a broader understanding of reporting as a governance and strategic‐management practice involving stakeholder engagement, legitimacy, impact measurement and ESG‐related information. Nevertheless, reporting practices remain heterogeneous, weakly standardized and only partially comparable, while persistent tensions exist between formal transparency and substantive accountability, comparability and mission specificity, and external reporting demands and organizational learning. The study contributes by integrating bibliometric mapping with qualitative synthesis and highlights the need for reporting models that are credible, comparable, and responsive to the mission, and stakeholder, specific nature of nonprofit value creation.