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Concerned about the governance of your organization?
Start the New Year right, with a renewed look at six critical policies that help your organization function safely and effectively.
Nonprofits have traditionally paid attention to conflict-of-interest policies, whistleblower policies, and document retention and destruction policies. Organizations pay attention, in large part, because the IRS asks about these policies on the Form 990 tax return. But these policies are critical in ensuring that the organization protects itself from wrong-doing and criticism that would undermine its ability to promote its mission. Potential donors, members of the media, regulators, and careful job seekers will have greater confidence when an organization responds “yes” to the policy questions on the 990.
Effective nonprofits also develop a series of other policies to guide their internal operations. We will take a long look at three of these:
- A compensation policy that provides attractive and fair levels of compensation and protects against excess benefits transactions.
- Confidentiality policies to control the issues that board and staff may talk about publicly. An inartful policy, if actually enforced, however, could prevent some directors from fulfilling their fiduciary duties.
- Remote work policies that may need a new look as “virtual” work is becoming permanent for many.
We will take a deep dive into these policies, discussing the key components of each policy and reviewing various sample policies to see how organizations can deal differently with different issues.
We will highlight policies promulgated and copyrighted by the Standards for Excellence Institute, the national program for ethics and accountability in the nonprofit sector. The Standards were originally developed by Maryland Nonprofits and are being promoted nationally with 10 replication partners, including the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO).
Nonprofits of all types and sizes are welcome to participate and join the discussion with your own comments or questions.
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