	Ethical Practice

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

CA-ETH 3: Fundraising

An organisation that raises funds by individual solicitation from the general public conducts fundraising activities in an ethical, fiscally responsible manner.

Interpretation: This section is applicable to organisations that solicit or receive money from private individuals, through capital campaigns, contribution plans, and United Way appeals. This section is not applicable to organisations that apply for and/or receive private or public grants and contracts.

The organisation reconciles its fundraising practices with prevailing ethical practices of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Imagine Canada, or similar national bodies.

NA The organisation does not conduct fundraising.

CA-ETH 3.01

The organisation’s governing body and management oversee fundraising activities and establish written agreements with outside contractors or consultants.

Interpretation: Internal controls should address the handling and acknowledgement of contributions and respect for donor confidentiality requests. At a minimum, the organisation should protect the confidentiality of donors who request anonymity by ensuring that such donors’ names are not published or listed in newsletters, articles, annual reports, or other publicly available documents regarding the organisation.

CA-ETH 3.02

The organisation:

accurately describes the purpose for which solicitations are being made;
spends funds for the purposes they were solicited, with the exception of reasonable costs for administration of the fundraising programme; and
maintains accounting segregation for restricted funds.

Interpretation: Conducting solicitations in an ethical manner also requires the organisation to ensure that there are no material omissions, misstatements of fact, or misrepresentation regarding the use of funds.

CA-ETH 3.03

Costs and benefits of each fundraising activity are analysed, taking into account factors that affect the reasonableness of fundraising costs in comparison to dollars raised.

Interpretation: Factors that affect reasonableness of fundraising costs to dollars raised include, and are not limited to: the differential costs of donor solicitation, donor renewal, large bequests, or donations that would obscure true fundraising costs. The organisation must show that it carefully allocates fundraising costs and does not obscure them by allocation to programme or educational purposes. The organisation must collect and maintain data that support sound fund-development decisions by its leadership.

CA-ETH 3.04

Upon donor or funder request, the organisation discloses descriptive and financial information for revenue-generating activities including fee-for-service programmes, for-profit subsidiaries, and related or unrelated business ventures.

CA-ETH 3.05

The organisation raises funds in accordance with applicable local, provincial, and federal requirements and registers all fundraising activities with the appropriate administrative authorities.

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	PURPOSE: The organisation earns and sustains the public trust through honest, truthful, and responsible transactions, partnerships, and relationships with individuals, communities, providers, businesses, donors, and government entities.

RELATED FILES


	CONTRACT A formal written agreement between two or more parties that specifies the services, space, or products to be provided in exchange for some form of compensation. Also known as “purchase of service arrangement.”


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organisational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	GOVERNING BODY A person or persons with the legal authority and responsibility to set policy and oversee the operations of an organisation. Generally, the governing body is a group, such as a board of directors or board of trustees. While the exact responsibilities of the governing body depend on the nature and character of the organisation, the governing body has minimum fiduciary responsibilities to the organisation set by Letters Patent, statute, regulation, and case law, and typically assume responsibilities for long term planning, risk management, and evaluation and effectiveness of management.


	CONSULTANT A person who provides specialised or technical advice or services to an organisation for specific purposes on a contractual or fee basis, or who provides such services as a volunteer with an agreement to provide services on a pro bono basis.


	CONFIDENTIALITY An ethical and practice principle that requires the protection of information shared within a professional-client relationship. An organisation that upholds confidentiality prohibits personnel from disclosing information about persons served without their written consent.


	ADMINISTRATION The personnel responsible for management functions of the organisation, including fiscal management, human resources, and service delivery. Such personnel determine organisational goals, acquire and allocate resources to carry out a programme, coordinate activities toward goal achievement, and monitor, evaluate, and make needed changes in processes and procedures to improve the likelihood of goal achievement. The term is synonymously used with MANAGEMENT.


	PROGRAMME A system of services offered by an organisation. For example, an organisation providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programmes to different populations, e.g., a mental health programme for adolescent teens. The word “programme” can be used interchangeably with the word “service” or to describe specific programmes.


	LEADERSHIP A nonprofit organisation's leadership consists of its governing body, chief executive officer, and may also include its senior management. In a public agency the term refers to the agency head and administration team. The term "leadership" is not generally applied to for-profit organisations. With respect to COA standards, in for-profit organisations the term leadership applies to the owner and board of directors if one exists.


	SERVICE One or more organisation-operated programmes or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organisation’s material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organisation that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licenced to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	MANAGEMENT See ADMINISTRATION