by Doreen Martel

Created on: January 25, 2009

In today's society more and more non profit organizations are electing to have an online presence. What often falls between the cracks however is what ethical online practices apply to nonprofits. There are some basic things that all non profit organizations need to do in order to maintain their high ethical standards when creating an online presence that include:

A) Disclosure - If your organization maintains part of your donations for administrative costs, it is important that you fully disclose this when you are disclosing online donations or when you are collecting funds online. If you hire an outside fundraising firm you must disclose the costs of those fundraising firms as well;

B) Financial Reports - A financial report is part of fulfilling your online ethical duties. Make sure that your financial report is clear, easy to understand and can be easily read by the everyday person. A financial report that is full of industry jargon will not help you gain trust with your potential donors;

C) Target - Each non profit organization has a cause that they target with their fundraising. As part of your online presence you should fully disclose what that cause is, how many people are affected and what you're doing to help;

D) Contact Information - Since you are a faceless name online it is prudent for you to disclose full contact information including name of the nonprofit organization, where you're incorporated, mailing address, telephone number and email address. This will help people ensure that they are dealing with a legitimate nonprofit organization;

E) Corporate Structure - You should consider disclosing your Board of Directors structure when you are creating an online presence. If your Board of Directors includes pure volunteers, paid members and associate members you should also include that information when creating an online presence;

F) Registrations - Today, nearly every state has information about corporate filings online. You can help increase people's comfort level with your nonprofit organization by providing quick links to all state registration information in your website.

As the internet becomes more mainstream, more and more people will turn to the internet for information. You should consider filing a proper report with the Better Business Bureau in your area to ensure that information is readily available if someone should seek additional information about your non profit organization. This also helps create a comfort level in donors.

Summary

Maintaining high ethical standards is necessary in all businesses, having high ethical online practices is crucial for all nonprofits especially given that some potential donors and persons in need of service will locate them first through the internet. It is not difficult to maintain a high ethical standard when creating an online presence, make sure you hold your online presence to the same high ethical standards you expect all of the time.

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