Inoculate Your Nonprofit from Public Reports of Self-Dealing

Most nonprofits are upstanding, ethical entities; other groups are not. 

What policies at the board level can either be updated or created to prevent self-dealing and how can we communicate process #excellence to our supporters and #funders?

> Last week, another large charity was identified by the The Philadelphia Inquirer in a situation where #leadership (board and staff) had set up sham vendors to collect extra #revenue over a long period of time.

> Separately, a health and wellness organization's CFO and her husband secretly rented out properties through the nonprofit's #housing department under the name of an LLC to evade detection and made hundreds of thousands in extra revenue which was unknown to staff. 

> Third, we watch the ongoing saga of self-dealing charges being tried by New York State against the National Rifle Association.

*** These stories accumulate in their power and ability to frustrate people who want to give #donations of any dollar amount. 

~~~~ Sharing #policies and how often they are reviewed and including periodic third party audits of contracts can help shore up #support from increasingly skeptical* #donors who are not often going to ask, but many wonder, "How do I know the #organizations I am supporting are scrupulous in their own operations?" (*Sources: Research cited since 2020 includes Independent Sector, Morning Consult, Edelman DXI, to name just three.)

Councils for Philanthropy around the USA, statewide #nonprofit associations (such as Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO), and the Standards for Excellence Institute® advocate for broad-reaching policy that prohibits any direct financial dealing among people associated with the board and staff to protect the integrity of the #finances for nonprofits. 

Let's celebrate the nonprofits that proactively educate their stakeholders about their practices through their website, annual & impact reports, and newsletters.