Giving Compass
  • Sign In
  • About Us
    About Giving Compass How We Choose Content and Organizations Annual Reflections Our Newsletter
  • Getting Started
  • Learn About Issues
    Topic Guides
    Animal Welfare COVID-19 Criminal Justice Democracy Disaster Relief Education Environment Health Homelessness Immigrants and Refugees Racial Equity Women and Girls
    Curated Articles
    Partner Collections Giving Compass Selections See All Articles
  • Give to Causes
    Issue Funds & Intermediaries Projects Nonprofits
  • Get Involved
    Philanthropy Resource Directory Events Volunteer Opportunities
  • Partner With Us
    Nonprofits Authors Use Our Content Services Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
Sign Up
  • Get the Newsletter
  • Sign In

How to Make Nonprofits More Accountable

Nonprofit Quarterly
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
Click here for more.
Nonprofit-accountability
  •  Share
  •  Save
Share

Giving Compass’ Take:

• Nonprofit Quarterly discusses the elements of effective nonprofit oversight, using the example of a service dog organization in Virginia to show how a lack of regulation can lead to bad practices.

• Are we doing enough to encourage transparency and accountability? How can we make sure that nonprofits have the resources they need to achieve high standards of transparency and reporting?

• Learn about myths versus facts for nonprofit accountability.


A nonprofit should not be singularly owned and controlled; there is a public trust stewardship that’s core to the way that we work, and that’s reflected in a board that might have caught some of the critical problems in this organization but instead just keeps ending up in court.

Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers (SDWR) is fighting Virginia Tech student Brianna Burch for custody of a dog she volunteered to raise for a year through SDWR’s Service Dog Raiser program. When they failed to come through on promised financial support, she assumed the contract was broken; when she learned that the company was being sued by Virginia’s attorney general for a number of consumer protection violations, she decided she didn’t “want to be a co-conspirator with them” and kept the dog. The fight has progressed to an appeal, and Circuit Court Judge Marc Long called the whole thing “kind of ridiculous.”

It is ridiculous, and it isn’t the kind of story that we might expect to see in the news — except that this nonprofit has already earned themselves a reputation for poor practice, and that makes them worth a story — likely because they have few of the expected nonprofit accountability measures in play.

Read the full article about why regulators need to make nonprofits accountable by Erin Rubin at Nonprofit Quarterly.

  •  Share
  •  Save
Share

Nonprofit Sector is a complex topic, and others found these selections from the Impact Giving archive from Giving Compass to be good resources.

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Pay-What-It-Takes Philanthropy

    For years, nonprofits have campaigned for funders to end their widespread practice of providing full financial support for programs and services, but scrimping on overhead costs. This practice gives rise to the vexing “starvation cycle” that constrains nonprofits’ ability to invest in essential organizational infrastructure and creates tensions, and even dishonesty, between grantmakers and grantees. Read the source article at The Bridgespan Group


Are you ready to give?

If you are interested in Boards and Governance, please see these relevant Issue Funds, Charitable Organizations or Projects where you can get involved.

Loading...
Learn More
Connect

Loading...

Loading...

Learn More
Take Action

Loading...

Loading...

Loading...

Learn More
More from
Giving Compass
  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    A Socially Responsible Investment Fund to Finance Justice
  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    38 Social Entrepreneurs to Watch for in 2021
  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Carbon Tracking and Reporting is Necessary to Hold Corporations Accountable
Follow Us
Newsletter

Become a newsletter subscriber to stay up-to-date on the latest Giving Compass news.

About Us
  • About Giving Compass
  • In The News
  • Contact Us
  • Content at Giving Compass
  • Partner With Us
Trending Issues
  • Environment
  • Homelessness
  • STEM Education
  • Equal Pay Act
  • Gender Equality

Copyright © 2021, Giving Compass, LLC

•
  • Privacy Policy
  • User Agreement

Sign in

Your personal information is confidential at Giving Compass. For more information, please visit our privacy policy. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use.