The Role Of Ethics In Nonprofit And Non-Profit Organizations

1352 Words3 Pages

Over the last 20 years, there has been a significant increase in nonprofit and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in the United States. With the increase in organizations, also came an increase in scandals and in the 1990’s multiple nonprofit and nongovernment organizations lost the public’s trust due to misuse of funds, lavish spending, and improper advances to protected populations. These charity scandals not only hurt direct organization’s reputation, but also led to the mistrust of nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations as a whole (Sidel, 2005). To combat these reputations, NGOs and nonprofit organizations began to self-regulate through employing morally obligated and altruistic employees, accountability practices, and lastly through Codes of ethics can be a form of self-regulation and accountability for NGOs and nonprofits. Even if codes are not implemented, it is suggested organizations create and abide by a mission statement and/or a set of goals. Codes originally developed as a means to help the public regain confidence after the scandals in the 1990’s, but have grown the most in recent years with the increase in organizations. From 2000 to 2011, the use of codes has increased from 16.6 percent to 55.8 percent. Not all codes are created equal, they vary in clarity, length, applicability, and jurisdiction. Some states with an abundance of nonprofits have state regulations and codes, for example the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits was created in 1994 and created the Principles and Practices for Nonprofit Excellence, a 20 page, detailed report encompassing fundraising, employee wages, internal hiring processes and more. On the other hand, the Massachusetts Council created a one-page code emphasizing six core values (Bromley & Orchard, 2016). Although codes of ethics encourage better practice, higher standards, and attempt to hold NGOs and nonprofit organizations accountable, they do not include incentives or consequences (Sidel, 2005). However, they do include suggestions and most importantly resources. For example, the National Council of Nonprofits, Ethical Fundraising includes resources for how to handle gifts appropriately, suggestions for transparency, how to decline conditional gifts appropriately, and more. Since one of the largest issues in NGOs and nonprofit organizations includes funding and expenditures, finances are the main focus for codes of ethics. Therefore, one of the key tools for gaining trust and accountability in NGOs and nonprofit organizations is be transparency. The National Council of Nonprofits

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