“I’ve randomly inserted pictures of my grandkids in my progress reports,” one executive director of a prominent mid-Atlantic nonprofit told me. “I’ve inserted lines like, ‘If you really read this, call me.’” He was bemoaning the fact that he’s forced to spend time writing reports that his foundation officer doesn’t seem to read. “Next time,” he said, “I’m going to put in an ad for my used car.”
I really think this is the exception rather than the rule, although I think Perla's post is largely accurate in that foundations tend to come up with a bureaucratic solution to every compliance challenge.
I do think she's a bit wrong here, though:
The nonprofit sector is developing in all of these directions, but it isn’t quite there yet. We don’t have an accepted understanding of effectiveness. There is no code of ethics, except for fundraisers. And if we did have a code of ethics, there would be no enforcement body to suspend or admonish anyone who broke it.
Sure, there's no collective code of ethics that nonprofits and foundations adhere to, and if someone manages to make that happen they deserve a Nobel Prize. Many nonprofits, and quite a few foundations, have codes of ethics which they make public. Do they adhere to them? Good luck finding out.