Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I explore the experiences of eight individuals engaged differently with nonprofit accountability. The principal-Agent perspective provides the framework. My investigation is prompted by my dissatisfaction with portrayals of governments’ relationships with financially dependent nonprofits as being dysfunctional, and necessarily oppositional, dyads. Simultaneous calls for more collaboration and ever-greater accountability risk dislocating excessively stretched joints. Preserving the uniqueness of each actor’s depiction and interpretation of accountability, I hope to shed light on what is really going on as accountability is negotiated, mediated and enacted by implicated individuals, and suggest how we might improve performances if we pay more attention to performers’ pragmatic interpretations of accountability scripts. Participants’ considered improvisations may enlighten accountability’s audiences and its directors and script-writers.