Self-Regulation Can Be Inspiring for Charities

To the Editor:

In response to Peter V. Berns’s opinion article on the need for a nonprofit self-regulation program (“A Missed Opportunity to Ensure Real Charity Accountability,” November 1), we would like to add our experience of self-regulation in Pennsylvania.

Can you imagine being inspired by self-regulation? Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?

Self-regulation sounds dry and legalistic, hardly motivating or inspiring. But in fact it is.

We know, because over the past five years, we have worked with 39 organizations that have aspired to excellence and demonstrated their ability for self-regulation by completing the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations’ Standards of Excellence voluntary certification program.

While our organization is proud of the code, we recognize and teach that just having a code of ethics is not the answer. After all, Enron had a code of ethics.

What is more critical is to provide nonprofit organizations with the education and technical assistance needed to meet principles or standards.

Education, followed by a disciplined process of ensuring implementation (certification being one of those processes), creates organizational change and allows for more-effective self-regulation.

Ray Thompson, executive director of Operation Outward Reach, in Youngwood, Pa., states, “Involving your agency in a certification program allows a nonprofit to have one source for information before changes in accountability come to your doorstep. With limited resources, having information centralized saves time and money. Involving our organization in the standards program gave us a ‘step up’ when it came time for a capital campaign; all the legalities and information were in one place.”

This is critical if we are to address the public’s concern about the state of the sector and our ability to be fiscally responsible and effective at self-regulation.

Any of the 39 organizations that have met the Standards of Excellence will tell you that it is not about getting a seal of approval. It is about applying the discipline of excellence, becoming a learning organization, modeling being the best, and committing to everyday self-regulation.

Many other nonprofit organizations are eager to demonstrate their excellence and ability to self-regulate as well. Over 2,000 organizations in Pennsylvania have taken part in the standards educational programs.

Standards programs could work for so many more organizations, but resources simply are not available. Foundations across Pennsylvania appreciate our efforts, and while many support the program, the effort needed to increase that support is costly and time-consuming for our association and for the nonprofit organizations undertaking the process.

Further, it has not yielded adequate support to expand the program to all interested organizations. Our country has high expectations of nonprofit organizations, and rightly so, but we also need to make the commitment to providing the education and tools that will enable nonprofits to most responsibly live up to the challenges.

Now that Independent Sector has given us an additional set of principles that is receiving national attention, the central question in my mind is, Will someone — be it public sector, private sector, or individuals who believe in the great role that our nonprofit sector fills in our nation, state and region — please come forward to help us implement them?

Tish Mogan
Standards for Excellence Officer
Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations
Harrisburg, Pa.