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Pennsylvania Nonprofits: Build Public Trust with Higher Excellence Standards

Our scandal-weary public regards everything with a wary eye, and you can bet it’s sizing up your nonprofit with a healthy dose of skepticism, too. It’s no longer enough to assure your organization’s stakeholders that you’re operating on the level; you have to prove it. The good news is that you can—and there are resources available to help you.

Consider voluntary, higher ethics and accountability measures

Pennsylvania nonprofits are bolstering public trust in themselves and the industry as a whole by recalibrating the minimum thresholds for ethics and accountability. The Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations (PANO) has established benchmarks for conduct in nonprofit leadership and management that go well beyond the mere legal requirements. These higher, voluntarily self-imposed standards for governance, policy, and funding can give tangible criteria for stakeholders to measure you against, engendering public goodwill and confidence in your organization.

Working with you to advance your industry

LarsonAllen emphatically supports PANO’s Standards for Excellence program. We believe nonprofits that demonstrate commitment to more stringent standards will rise well above those that only comply with minimum requirements—and lead the way for other industries as well. That’s why we have elected to participate in the program by assisting organizations in the operational and financial planning strategies, board and staff policies, fundraising and openness efforts, and budgetary transparency measures that will align them with these greater standards.

How we can help

Whether your organization wishes to pursue PANO’s full Standards for Excellence certification or undergo any of their tiered ethics and accountability reviews, LarsonAllen’s PANO-certified, nonprofit industry practitioners can help develop the policies and practices you need to get there.

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Ben Aase, Nonprofit and Government Consultant
baase@larsonallen.com or 612-397-3069

Kristen Danks, Nonprofit and Government Senior
kdanks@larsonallen.com or 267-419-1197

View our nonprofit and government principals.