The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations: Seeking “Standards for Excellence” for the Future

Editor’s Note: This edition of the Carnegie Results focuses on the “Standards for Excellence,” a Maryland-based capacity-building and self-regulation initiative designed to help nonprofit organizations adopt best practices for management and to instill greater accountability. Although a foundation-supported national replication project has only been recently launched, there are already positive indications that the Standards program is contributing to the development of a strong culture of setting and adhering to standards in the nonprofit community.

INTRODUCTION

Before Leslie Ostrander took the reins at the Kidney Foundation of Greater Cincinnati in 2002, the organization had been run for nineteen years by the same executive director. It operated like “a mom and pop shop,” Ostrander says. “Our board wasn’t sophisticated in the realm of what a board is supposed to do for a nonprofit or how a nonprofit is supposed to operate.”

More alarmingly, says Ostrander. “I inherited a financial system that was managed by a guy in his 80s who was very used to doing what he and the former executive director felt comfortable doing, even though their system was still based in DOS [the pre-Windows computer operating system]. Even our treasurer couldn’t understand it, and he’s a CPA,” Ostrander says.

There was no suggestion of impropriety at the Kidney Foundation. Nonetheless, the lack of management safeguards left the organization vulnerable. “If you can’t understand your financials,” Ostrander says, “you really don’t have control over your money.”

Written by: Richard Mendel. Mendel is a writer and editor specializing in juvenile justice, youth development, employment, community economic development, and other poverty-related issues of concern to America’s nonprofit sector. His work has been published by the American Youth Policy Forum, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Enterprise Foundation, Lilly Endowment, and other leading foundations and nonprofit agencies. Also, he has written for The Atlantic, Baltimore Sun, Washington Monthly, and other publications.