NonprofitEye

Nonprofit Image Problem? by pam ashlund Life has a way of being just plain embarrassing sometimes. I've been in accounting since the '80's. As a manager I take my job and it's concomitant responsibilities very seriously. I work hard to achieve due diligence, as any good financial manager would. Along those lines, I keep up on the body of work on the subject of Fraud Detection. Here's the rub: Call it vanity, call it a mid-life crisis, call it treating myself to one big splurge.. I bought a sports car this summer. Oh the shame. I love this car so much true, but how embarrassing in the nonprofit world. I know I should be driving a Prius d--n it. I document my love-hate relationship with this car on my blog: Boxster Heaven How do these two topics converge? The IT Compliance Institute (the self-proclaimed "Global Authority for IT Compliance Information") has a great article called Best Practices: Ten Tips for Fighting Corporate Fraud. And #7 on that list is: ...

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE: NONPROFIT CENSORSHIP? (originally posted 1/25/06 and cross posted on El Loro ) by pam ashlund This post is the first in a series on censorship, free-speech, and the power of ideas Are nonprofits censored or controlled by government funding? After 1989, if your nonprofit accepts a federal contract of over $100,000, you are subject to the Drug Free Workplace Act. In a "Drug-free workplace", the employer has taken steps and initiated policies to ensure that employees, vendors, and customers are not: taking or using alcohol or drugs, selling drugs, or affected by the after effects of indulging in alcohol or drugs outside of the workplace during non-work time. Here's the funny part: Does the Act require employees to do drug testing? Nope. Does this mean if we are implementing a drug testing program to comply with the act that we are censoring ourselves? Maybe so. Just as an examination of anti-depressants can easily turn into a conversation about the ...