Nonprofit Ethics Links
1. National Council of Nonprofits: Ethics and Accountability in the Sector
http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/resources/resources-topic/ethics-accountability
This site is a great place to start when looking for general nonprofit ethics resources. Here you can find a well-organized commentary on important ethics and accountability/transparency-related issues with convenient links embedded to Web resources. Included are templates and samples of ethics codes; links to IRS sites of relevance; two sample confidentiality policies for staff, board, and volunteers; and a primer on conducting an organizational ethics audit to assure your organization is meeting both legal requirements and the higher ethical standards it seeks for itself.
2. Stanford Social Innovation Review
This site was prepared by Deborah L. Rhode and Amanda K. Packel, and dates from the summer of 2009. The introduction, in the form of an academic article written in clear and plain English, provides a justification for why nonprofit organizations should be vigilant about ethics issues in their organization, and highlights many ethical failures and their impact on public confidence about the work of nonprofits. Most of the page is geared to misconduct, but it also has material focusing on more gray areas of nonprofit management. It provides particular focus on six such management areas: compensation, conflicts of interest, publications and solicitation, financial integrity, investment policies, and accountability and strategic management. While giving the appearance of being relatively inactive, this interactive site provides an opportunity for visitors to leave comments about the materials.
3. Nonprofit Resource Center of Florida Atlantic University's Nonprofit Ethics Pages.
http://wise.fau.edu/~rcnyhan/images/index.html
This site is an annotated list of links of nonprofit ethics tools, including books, trainings, reviews of nonprofit ethics cases, ethics news and press releases, general nonprofit and business ethics site links, access to free ethics courses, and general ethics management advice.
4. California State University--Fullerton College of Communications: Ethics on the World Wide Web
http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/ethics/ethics_list.html
Last updated on June 12, 2012, it contains hundreds of links to ethics resources that may be found on the Web, including links to associations and other organizations with substantial ethics resources, an annotated bibliography, business ethics resources, pages on creating ethics codes with links to examples, a page with links for computer ethics issues, course lecture notes and other ethics course materials, and much, much more.
5.Grantland Ethics Cartoons
http://www.grantland.net/ethics.htm
If you are looking for ethics cartoons for a class, to illustrate a presentation, to insert in a publication, or simply to have a good laugh (and a teaching moment), surf this site for more than 150 ethics cartoons. There are many that focus on boards and fundraising. You can view these for free at the site, but there is a modest charge to use them in publications and presentations. And they offer to modify the wording of the captions to suit your purposes.
6. Independent Sector: Resource Center for Good Governance and Ethical Practice
http://www.independentsector.org/governance_ethics_resource_center
These are perhaps the most comprehensive ethics resources on the Web for nonprofit management. The pages of this site are organized by 4 main categories ( Legal Compliance and Public Disclosure, Effective Governance, Strong Financial Oversight, and Responsible Fundraising) and 33 subcategories that track each of the 33 core principles of the Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations. These principles were developed by the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector in October 2007 convened by Independent Sector in 2004 as a result of "encouragement" (the term used by Independent Sector) the Senate Finance Committee, which was considering scores of reforms restricting nonprofit organizations that many in the sector were seeking to avoid. Each of these subcategories has background materials that explain the concept behind the principle, address legal and compliance issues, provide tips on how to comply, and link to additional Web resources. Also on Independent Sector's site is its Compendium of Standards, Codes, and Principles of Nonprofit and Philanthropic Organizations. These pages contain almost 100 ethics standards, codes, and principles organized by categories of public charities, foundations, professional standards for individuals, online giving, in-kind gifts, relationships between charities and for-profit organizations, donor bills of rights, and international standards. Each of these categories is further organized by relevant subcategories.
7. Carter McNamara’s Business Ethics: Managing Ethics in the Workplace and Social Responsibility
http://managementhelp.org/businessethics/ethics-guide.htm
Developed by Carter McNamara, this site includes the Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers with practical information for all types of organizations on ethics issues. In addition to general ethics articles, there are "how to" materials on developing a code of ethics, a code of conduct, resolving ethical dilemmas, and references to hard copy and Web resources.
8. Better Business Bureau’s “Start With Trust” Nonprofit Ethics Pages
http://www.bbb.org/us/charity/
This site has lots of resources relating to ethical fundraising, including materials of use to both donors and fundraisers. It also has the details about the Wise Giving Alliance's Charity Seal program that provides accreditation to charities that are found to meet all of the 20 BBB Charity Standards.
9. Maryland Nonprofits:Standards for Excellence
http://www.marylandnonprofits.org/html/standards/index.asp
Here you can find information about the Standards for Excellence certification program for nonprofit governance and management.
10. Josephson Institute of Ethics
http://www.josephsoninstitute.org
Founded in 1987, the Institute offers training and publications to support its mission of increasing ethical commitment, competence, and practice. Visit this site to subscribe to free ethics newsletters. Click on Business to access its Center for Business Ethics's resources of books, links, quotations, and details about the Six Pillars of Character (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship). Click on Other Organizations (Links) for links to scores of general business ethics resources.
11. Ethics Resource Center
This organization was founded in 1922 and is a research organization dedicated to conducting research that advances high ethical standards in public and private organizations. There are excellent publications on this site of interest to nonprofit organizations, including the National Business Ethics Survey (February 2014), and the Ethics Toolkit, which contains an ethics glossary, resources for creating an organizational ethics code, and models for making ethical business decisions. You can also download the full text of the 2007 National Nonprofit Ethics Survey--the 4th longitudinal study in the series-- which quantifies changes in staff member attitudes about ethics, and documents a decline in ethical standards.
12. Charity Navigator
http://www.charitynavigator.org
There are lots of resources on this site that help donors make informed decisions about the charities to which they might donate. The site permits visitors to search on the name of any charity and get access to financial information (including 990s, if provided by the organization)and whether the organization meets certain standards relating to financial performance, transparency, and accountability. It also provides some comparison to peer charities.
13. Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
As you might expect, these pages focusing primarily on fundraising ethics. They include a model set of fundraising ethics principles and an FAQ that deals with issues such as conflict of interest, fundraiser compensation, privacy, donor recognition, and enforcement. The site includes a Donor Bill of Rights, ethics-related articles and white papers, and materials relating to emerging ethical issues. Some of the material is restricted to members of AFP--such as the Ethics Accountability Inventory Tool--(insert TM superscript after inventory) but most is accessible to the public.
14. Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
http://ethics.iit.edu/
This site is hosted by Illinois Institute of Technology. You can find a collection of nearly 1000 ethics codes, , indexed by professional category at: http://ethics.iit.edu/research/codes-ethics-collection In addition to developing courses and programs on ethics for IIT, the Center sponsors the Ethics Across the Curriculum program to assist professors with integrating ethics-related instruction within courses other than ethics.
15. The Ethics and Compliance Officer Association
This organization gives itself credit for founding the ethics compliance field in 1991. Its mission is being the leading provider of ethics, compliance, and corporate governance resources to ethics and compliance practitioners worldwide and providing its members with access to an unparalleled network of ethics and compliance peers and a global forum for the exchange of ideas and strategies. The organization offers course and programs, including many provided online. Among them is Ethics 101, geared to ethics compliance officers, and consists of seven 90-minute webcasts.
16. EthicsWorld
Sponsored by the Vogl Foundation, the mission of EthicsWorld is to "disseminate information and strengthen understanding of the critical issues of institutional governance, business ethics and anti-corruption, by reporting on key developments and providing a forum for diverse opinions." thee are lots of materials on this site relating to international ethics concerns and multi-national NGOs than you can find almost anywhere else on the Web.