Transparency: The Gateway to Making Your Nonprofit Accessible

For nonprofits, transparency is akin to ethics that call on us to do what we should do when it’s not required or no one’s watching. In a more positive vein, transparency is opening the gates so all might see the full picture of what you want to accomplish and how it’s going for all current and would-be supporters.

As a nonprofit consultant and academic, I frequently conduct research on nonprofits, which requires my reaching out to nonprofit boards and/or staff to learn this or that. For many nonprofits with an online presence, I am often able to locate a contact person’s email address or phone number.

But my biggest pet peeve is when there is no readily available contact information. A little less frustrating is when a nonprofit lists “info@nonprofit.org as the contact. This sometimes does serve as a gateway when someone actually checks their portal to see who has indeed sought information. To add fuel to my already simmering fire, I get even more frustrated with the online form that serves as the gateway to info@nonprofit.org. 

Of course, as a determined researcher with a never-give-up attitude, I’m not going to stop until I find contact information. But the “so what?” of this story is really not about my constant frustration about securing information. No, it’s about nonprofit transparency. 

The Importance of Nonprofit Transparency

Nonprofit transparency is the intentional action of being open and honest about a nonprofit's finances, policies, staff, board members and impact. Transparency builds trust with donors, community and staff. To me, hiding or not revealing contact information is a transparency failure. I see it as no less a transparency failure than hiding the organization’s Form 990, not identifying who is on the nonprofit’s board, or who are the nonprofit’s donors and partners. Who precisely is the public to trust if it can’t even tell who are the nonprofit’s owners (aka the board, managers and donors)?

Steps for Action

Transparency is both policy and practice. I believe every nonprofit board should have clear policy directives about transparency: Why it matters? What it means? What is included? Who is responsible and when? A policy should contain:

• Financial statements. These should include the income and expense statements, as well as the balance sheet. Some nonprofits may also find value in highlighting their budget. Have these available on the website and in the office.
• IRS Form 990. Greater Good, Candid and Charity Navigator are online repositories of this data. Nonprofits should ensure that information is current and accurate. The IRS requires that the Form 990 be available on site when requested. Also have these available on your website.
• Tax-exemption application and all correspondence with the IRS. 
• Annual reports. The annual report tells the story of an organization’s outcomes and financial wellness.
• Who is in charge, along with their contact information.

I very much understand and appreciate that nonprofits view their websites and other forms of media as vehicles for telling their story but also as opportunities to collect names and contact information. Every professional development person will insist that there be a contact form to gather information about prospective volunteers and donors. 

But don’t confuse your goals. Giving out all your nonprofit’s information, including to whom to speak, is as important as collecting data about visitors. The first is about transparency. The latter is about sustainability. But isn’t transparency also a sustainability tool?

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.