Given the importance of the United Kingdom (UK) charity sector to the UK economy and society, key stakeholders have long demanded increasing transparency and accountability from charities. Particular calls have been made for improvements in annual reporting, including good quality financial and performance reporting. Responding to these legitimate stakeholder needs, successive Statements of Recommended Practice (SORP) for charities have been used to improve accounting and reporting. This thesis examines both the development of these reporting recommendations and the extant reporting practices of UK charities. Using the theoretical lens of stake holder theory (Freeman, 1984; Donaldson and Preston, 1995) and stakeholder salience (Mitchell, Agle and Wood, 1997), this thesis explores: the influence of stake holders on the development of the SORP; the implications of a particular SORP change on transparency to stakeholders; the extent and manner of performance reporting by UK charities and the implications of this for stakeholders; and charity managers' perspectives on accountability and transparency to stakeholders. This research contributes to empirical knowledge on the development of reporting recommendations, on the extent and manner of reporting on performance, (specifically on efficiency and effectiveness) and to the debate on how such reporting should develop in the future. It also contributes to the understanding of stakeholder influences (and particularly salient stakeholder influences) on the development of reporting recomendations and on charity managers' reporting decisions. It argues that, in this not-for-profit context, both ethical and legitimation-orientated motivations are seen in managers' responses to stakeholders, and these may be more complex, and more in tension with each other, than previously suggested. This thesis contributes to the literature on stakeholder salience by exploring salience in a context where stakeholder needs may align, rather than compete, and highlights charities' responses to stake holders perceived as legitimate, even when they may not be salient.