This is part of a special series, brought to you by the Standards for Excellence Institute, to provide nonprofit leaders with a brief nonprofit governance and management tip weekly over the course of 2020. We hope these short tips will be helpful to you and the nonprofits you serve. If you have suggestions for future topics, please forward these to acmadsen@standardsforexcellence.org.Its that time of year again! For many nonprofit boards, this is the time of year when all active board members[…]

The Standards for Excellence Institute, an initiative designed to help nonprofit organizations operate more ethically and accountably, announces its 2019 Class of Licensed Consultants. Twenty-nine class members hailing from nine states recently completed the intensive, three-day training seminar and can assist nonprofits nationwide. They bring years of experience to the table and represent organizations from California to Maryland – and many in between.    Standards for Excellence Licensed[…]

From Amy Coates Madsen, Director of the Standards for Excellence There have been a series of high-profile conflict of interest situations and ethical challenges in the nonprofit sector in the last few weeks and months. To many, these high-profile stories have served as a wake-up call to nonprofit board and staff leaders that they should be more focused on their governance in a way that is as ethical as possible. Here are three quick tips to start your journey of preventing conflicts of interest[…]

Last September, Standards for Excellence Director Amy Coates Madsen sat down with Ted Bilich of The Nonprofit Resilience and Growth Podcast to discuss what the Standards are and how nonprofit organizations benefit from implementing them. The podcast - along with timestamps - can be found here. […]

Ahh, the glorious feeling of looking at the month after next on your calendar and seeing whole empty days. How easy it is to be magnanimous and say “yes” when asked to take on a job that isn’t due for two months. So we say “yes,” and put it on the calendar. When another someone asks us to do something in the future, we again check our calendar, see that it’s still pretty empty, and again say “yes.” This happens a few more times, and all of a sudden, the 1st week in December starts looking pretty[…]

The Standards for Excellence Institute, an initiative designed to help nonprofit organizations operate more ethically and accountably, announces its 2017 Ethics Standards Committee. The National Ethics Standards Committee is charged with overseeing the accreditation and recognition program of the Standards for Excellence Institute. Members of the Ethics Standards Committee are trained individuals responsible for evaluating a nonprofit organization's application for compliance with the Standards[…]

We are currently seeking a few nonprofit experts to serve as members of our National Ethics Standards Committee. The National Ethics Standards Committee is charged with overseeing the Accreditation and Recognition Program of the Standards for Excellence Institute, a project of Maryland Nonprofits. The Committee’s main roles and responsibilities include: Providing advice and guidance to staff regarding the periodic review and evaluation of the application policies, procedures, and[…]

SAVE – Saving Animals Volunteer Effort – was created in September of 2009 when concerned citizens from two Alabama counties came to together to address the problem of animal homelessness and overcrowding in animal shelters. Their efforts have been to spay and neuter pets, and feral cars, to reduce the population of unwanted animals, and hope for a day when every pet has a home. SAVE has been accredited with Standards for Excellence Institute since 2015. I recently got the opportunity to speak[…]