Ethics Q & A
August
30 , 2004
By Jane Garthson, Mills
Garthson & Associates
The dilemma:
I am an independent consultant serving businesses in my community. I would like to help some nonprofits too. Can you tell me about some ethical ways to help?
Jane says...
Thank you for wanting to help local nonprofits. Most business consultants have skills they can really use! I will try to answer in terms of both unpaid and paid ways to help.
That said, you may need to learn quite a bit about the differing laws,
needs, and practices in nonprofits in order for your skills to be used
well. Be prepared to learn from and about nonprofits, not just come
in as the expert. If you market Jaguars, a high-quality costly marketing
package is a must. If you market protection for jaguars in the wild,
donors may see glossy marketing pieces as a waste of money. Every
consulting specialty has to go through such shifts in thinking when
serving nonprofits, or they do them a disservice. In my field, governance,
I see terrible results in charities that have blindly adopted corporate
governance practices unsuited to their charitable status.
If you belong to a professional association, they may have a nonprofit
special interest group that would help you learn more. The Canadian
Institute for Chartered Accountants, for example, has one. There are
free and low-cost resources on the Internet, such as the Consultants
forum and newsletter at www.charitychannel.com.
Many books are published each year specific to the nonprofit sector.
There is likely at least one a year in your specialty, and probably
a periodical or two as well. A couple of places to start looking are
www.wilder.org/pubs/ and www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-2991.html.
Of course, you can bring your current skills and knowledge to a volunteer
task force, committee, or board. As long as you have some humility about
what you do not know, your expertise should be warmly welcomed. You
may have to talk to a number of nonprofits to find the right fit at
any moment in time. If your local nonprofits don't seem to need what
you are offering, consider virtual volunteering. Don't forget to consider
your professional association; they need volunteers too.
Rather than approaching nonprofits individually, check with your local
volunteer centre (some are better than others at understanding how consultants
can help charities). See if your professional association helps to find
matches (see www.oba.org/en/admin/affiliated_en/volunteer.aspx
for an example - for lawyers). Dedicated management support organizations
(MSOs) such as the Calgary Centre for Nonprofit Management and the Niagara
Centre for Community Leadership help match consultants with charities,
though there are very few MSOs in Canada compared to the USA. Your local
United Way may also have an agency services section. Some MSOs pay consultants
and some use only volunteers.
You can also help nonprofits by having a special low rate for them, or serving a pro bono client each year. These clients should be treated just like a client paying the full rate, and given the same quality of service. You may get good referrals from them, as some of their board members are likely business people.
Some people think you can get a tax receipt for services, but that is
not allowed under Canadian or US law. You can get a tax receipt for
giving money. The money should not be linked to a business relationship,
so do NOT sign back a cheque paying for your services. The receipt might
also be invalid if you made a commitment to a donation in your contract
for services. (Caveat: I am not an accountant or a lawyer. Canadians
can refer to www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/charities/policy/cpc/cpc-017-e.html
and Item (d) in www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it110r3/it110r3-e.html#P173_15412).
Remember that what the charity pays you is income regardless of how
much you donate in the same year. Your business costs to earn that income
are deductible as for any other client.
There are other ways for small businesses to help nonprofits. You can
make donations, and even sole practitioners can sign the Imagine pledge
to donate at least 1% of pre-tax profits (www.imagine.ca).
You can give away old equipment when upgrading, and provide meeting
space or other such aid at no cost to your business. You can even revise
your mission statement to make your company a social enterprise one,
like Ben and Jerry's (take a look at www.benjerry.com/our_company).
Even though self-employed people often lose income and billable hours when helping nonprofits, I see them volunteering on average MORE than their corporate peers, even when companies support volunteering. Being able to help our communities when and how we wish is one of the perks of self-employment. We can also keep costs low for community clients. Our time may be more flexible, and the networking can be very meaningful to people who work alone at home. I wish every independent consultant would find ways every year to help their community!
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Because nonprofit organizations are formed to do good does not mean
they always are good in their own practices. Send us your ethical questions
dealing with volunteers, staff, clients, donors, funders, sponsors, and
more. Please identify yourself and your organization so we know the questions
come from within the sector. No identifying information will appear in
this column.
To submit a dilemma for a future column, or to comment on a previous one,
please contact help@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.
