1,308 miles in a Toyota

We're nearing the end of the public input phase of the 2009 Accountability Standards Project. Since the preliminary standards were unveiled in June, we’ve heard from nonprofit leaders, individual donors and grantmakers. The quality, thoughtfulness and diversity of feedback has been incredibly helpful in making sure the final set of Accountability Standards the Board of Directors will vote on at the October meeting are truly the reasonable expectations for accountable nonprofits.

I wanted to briefly look back on these past few months and summarize some of what happened. All told, here are the numbers:

• 7 town halls and 4 large group meetings across Minnesota and North Dakota
• More than 350 people attended a town hall and gave us feedback
• 1,308 miles logged in Rich Cowles' Toyota Corolla traveling to all the town halls.

Add this to the 12 focus groups we did this past spring, the comments on this blog, and individual feedback from people via email or phone calls and you get a healthy sized amount of data to sort through and digest. Of course, this is a fantastic challenge to address. The strong interest and general support for these standards and the work of the Charities Review Council speaks highly to the fact that here in the upper-Midwest we have a vibrant nonprofit and philanthropic sector that understands the importance of accountability and transparency.

Although there are a number of possible changes to the preliminary standards that the Program Committee and then the Board of Directors will have to look at, I wanted to highlight a few of the stronger bits of feedback that we heard. Top on this list, surprisingly to me, is the potential for adding board term limits to the Board Length of Service standard. As one town hall attendee said:

“I frequently experience that nonprofits who are having board problems, regularly have no term limits and board members who have been on the board for 10+ years."

This sentiment was echoed many times over, from Fargo to Mankato to Minneapolis, and is something that will be considered as a possible addition to the Accountability Standards.

The other strong piece of feedback received was around the Financial Health standard and, in particular, the requirement of cumulative growth over the past 3 years in unrestricted net assets. Now obviously, we’re in historic economic times where many nonprofits are simply trying to stay afloat, much less grow unrestricted assets. But we also heard a number of people tell us that because of the recession, nonprofits are spending down unrestricted reserves because this is the proverbial rainy day everyone had been saving for. Done in a prudent and strategic way, this makes a lot of sense, but means that the nonprofit likely would not meet this standard. We received a lot of good suggestions on how to find a compromise on this one and will be considering them all.

To see further feedback on these issues, and many more, please check out the summaries of the town hall forums that are posted on our website. Also, please keep an eye out for the final revised Accountability Standards later this fall. In an effort to make sure nonprofits and donors have time to adjust to these new standards, they won’t be implemented until 2010, but we encourage everyone to keep letting us know what they think and asking us questions.

Again, thank you to everyone who weighed in during these past few months. We look forward to staying connected with you and working together on this important task of improving the climate for charitable giving.

The Accountability Superhighway

When working with organizations on reviews I frequently encourage them to post their annual reports, IRS Form 990s, independent audits, and more on their web site. I have also been asking people if anyone has telephoned them lately to ask for an annual report. I find that very few donors do this.


I was very excited to read that a recent Nonprofit Times survey confirmed the increasing prevalence of the Internet as a means to research potential donations! I know this is not the biggest news to everyone but it holds enormous promise to charitable giving and building public trust. Having your annual report on-line can actually be less expensive. You can even do it in such a way that it can be easily printed for those without computer access. It is also easier to correct mistakes and to keep it current.


Take a look at our annual reporting standard as a simple guide to what information you should be sure to have on your web site in addition to important public documents. Let us know if you have any interesting ideas or questions about using your web site to build public trust.

Public Trust check-up

How much do know you about general trust in the nonprofit sector?

In case you missed our Annual Forum speaker, Paul Light of NYU's Wagner School of Public Service, we have posted links to highlights and his remarks on our our web site. His research has shown that the level of trust in nonprofits "not risen significantly" in the years following September 11th, 2001. While nonprofits continue to be trusted more than the federal government and for-profit business, there are serious doubts about the ability of nonprofits to spend money wisely. His research and the Council's own local survey are a good opportunity to learn more.

The conversation about public trust was also covered by Dave Beal in his latest column in the Pioneer Press.

I am convinced that the nonprofit sector can turn these numbers around. There are a myriad of low cost ways to demonstrate that your organization is trustworthy.

For example, Does your website prominently post an annual report, accomplishments or outcomes, 990s, audits, or other public disclosure documents?

[Organization Self-Promotion Warning] How about an Accountability Wizard Review to publicly demonstrate a committment to accountability?