Uphold Trust

As public stewards, your board, its individual members, and those to whom it delegates authority, must be beyond reproach. While most charitable organizations enjoy a high degree of public trust, most of us are aware of breaches of accountability that have occurred in charities and have cast doubt and suspicion on the entire charitable sector.

Con artists or greenhorns?

When a breach in accountability occurs in a charity, it is not typically because of malicious intentions. Rather, these situations tend to arise from lacks of awareness and expertise. As Ed Broadbent, chair of the Panel on Accountability and Governance in the Voluntary Sector, states, "Most problems in governance and accountability in the sector occur not at all through dishonesty or corruption, but through innocent, ordinary people who aren't experts in management. Overwhelmingly they are good people who don't have an intuitive grasp of how things need to be set up and structured." Mr. Broadbent's comments seem to imply that boards must offer appropriate training to their members regarding expectations, roles, responsibilities and codes of conduct.

To minimize the chances of a breach of accountability or conflict of interest from occurring in your organization and on your board, the following should be provided to board members, as well as staff and volunteers in positions of authority:

• Appropriate screening, considering ethics, judgment, criminal records, etc.
• A code of conduct, signed by the person to indicate their understanding of and agreement to its expectations
Written conflict of interest policies
• Opportunities to declare, either verbally or in writing, any situations that pose potential conflicts of interest for them.

Are you able to fulfill your responsibility to avoid conflicts of interest? Are you worthy of public trust? Check out your knowledge in this area, and crush conflict of interest.

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