Nonprofits Applied Ethics

We’ve all seen nonprofits that make great errors in judgement because they didn’t have a practice in place for applying ethics.  Some nonprofits’ missions and actions seem to be diabolically opposed. For example -community antipoverty programs who receive generous state/federal and donor funds, yet they pay their employees a substandard/non living wage job. This perpetuates the very problem they are tasked to solve.  How about the environmental nonprofit who purchases and distributes brand swag that is made of plastic? The heart disease nonprofit that supports third-party fundraisers that sell unhealthy foods?  And, we’ll leave you with this gem… the nonprofit that takes donated money from unethical, questionable sources?

Leaders of nonprofits must create a framework to ensure ethics standards are in place.  If you are used to the practice of ethics in your daily life, it will be easy for you to apply the same principals in creating a framework for your nonprofit.  Let us help you get started. The following is to encourage discussion and decision making:

1. Early-on identify potential ethical issues with operational and business practices. This is for both internal and external practices.
2. Create guiding principals with your mission and objectives in mind.
3. Identify and plan for ethical issues as they arise.
4. Get all of the facts – on both sides of the issue.
5. Identify all options and evaluate what works best given the mission and guiding principles.
6. Make known decision making based upon your ethics framework and reflect on the outcomes.   

Having an ethics framework in place, will allow your nonprofit to make quick decisions without compromising your mission.  As always Jasmin Group is here to help you with your business and nonprofit needs. Contact us today.