Independent, and in the Sector

For those of you who have historically been opposed to the Independent Sector's Panel on the Nonprofit Sector on the grounds that IS doesn't really represent the views of most charities, I have some ammunition for you. (My problem with the panel’s work is more philosophical than practical in that I'm no fan of voluntary self-regulation and believe that optional standards do little for the average donor, since the cheaters and the scammers will simply ignore the practices.)

In our roundtable discussion with seven smaller charities (small compared to most on our site, but all raise in the neighborhood of $300,000 a year in contributions), we asked the following question:

In response to the Senate Finance Committee's threat of increased oversight of charities, The Independent Sector spearheaded a panel that released a set of standards for self-regulation. Do you feel that the issues unique to smaller charities were taken into account when those standards were written?

And while I have had my differences with the Independent Sector, I was shocked by the answers we received. Not only had none of the charity leaders read the standards, they weren't even remotely familiar with what they said or why they had come about in the first place. Furthermore, it was apparent that at least 6 of the leaders we questioned (out of 7) didn't even know what the Independent Sector was.

I mean this as no slight to the charity leaders we questioned (they obviously have better things to do than read reports from D.C.), nor even to the Independent Sector. Lord knows we have our own problems getting our name out there. But I do think it's relevant from a policy standpoint to remember that the Independent Sector, with its 600 members--most of them foundations, unfortunately doesn't speak for the vast majority of working charities in this country. And when they create voluntary standards for good governance, it's unlikely that most groups out there will adhere to them, if they've never even heard of the group that is promoting the standards.