Screenings Find Few Criminals Seek Nonprofit Jobs

By Maria Di Mento

Nonprofits that conducted background checks on volunteers and employees last year found fairly good news—only 5 percent of the people screened had been involved in any kind of criminal activity, compared with 7 percent in 2010, a new study has found. But more than one in five of the people with criminal backgrounds had been convicted of serious crimes, including drug and sex offenses.

The study was conducted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a company that does background checks.

It examined more than 5.4 million of the reviews that it conducted from 2007 to 2011 for nonprofits on their volunteers and employees. Of that group, 479,000 people had criminal backgrounds. Some 91,000 had been involved drug-related offenses, more than 10,000 had committed sex-related crimes, and 1,100 people had been convicted of murder.

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