The article by Rhode and Packel, published in Stanford Social Innovation review reveals true nature of nonprofit sector organizations. According to a 2008 Brookings Institution survey only 15% of people regard charity work as beneficial for people, while nearly 70% had an opinion that charitable organizations waste large portions of money and do not bring any positive impact. These results reflect the issue that currently exists in our society - mistrust of American people towards nonprofit organizations. It is a relevant problem, because “volunteering” and “charity” has become an important part of lives of many Americans. For instance, the United Way is one of the largest volunteering organizations and thousands of people strive to contribute offering their help and donations. Beside a great deal of private donations, companies follow the trend and develop their corporate social responsibility strategy. Usually companies donate money to large charitable organizations to raise awareness about such activity and eventually to attract more customers to their goods and services.
The nonprofit sector is a perfect environment for ethical issues, including conflicts of interest, social misconduct and lack of integrity. In fact, people have the basis to lose trust in nonprofit sector. Unfortunately, there were recorded many violations of accountability and financial management in different charity organizations. As a result, donations and in-kind goods are distributed unevenly, employees take advantage of their positions and investors try to maximize the financial return on investments. In the American society where nonprofits have crucial public function, it is unacceptable to lose credibility in them.
Arguably, there are many solutions for this issue. One of them is to demand transparency in operations from the government level by enforcing strict supervision over all nonprofit organizations. Negative public perceptions appeared primarily because of reported misuse of financial contributions. Employees reward system should be fair and also managed on a state level to ensure, that people do not feel discouraged with their compensation. Nonprofit organizations should receive more attention from their stakeholders and the government. Morover, each charitable organization needs to have strategic focus and structured system of accountability. Since people are the main contributors, they need to receive reports on financial donations. However, in a long run, the government is the only body that can enforce and change the way nonprofits work.
Work Cited
Rhode D., Packel A. (2009). Ethics and Nonprofits, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2009
