Principles and Practices

for Nonprofit Excellence

Role in Society

Nonprofit organizations provide unique opportunities for individuals to combine their energy, talents and values for community improvement and enrichment. Nonprofits are obligated to understand their role as entities that engage and inspire individuals and communities for public benefit, and to conduct their activities with transparency, integrity and accountability.

Role Recognition

1) Nonprofits should recognize that their role in society differs from that of government and business. Nonprofits have a special ability to organize the energy and ideas of a community to achieve together what individuals cannot achieve alone. By tapping into the values, interests and relationships of individuals, nonprofits can mobilize their supporters and the larger community to realize their vision. Unlike government entities, nonprofits can focus on very local, specific or new matters and need not wait for community wide consensus to begin their work. Nonprofit organizations emerge from expressed community needs and are not restricted to the marketplace priorities and constraints that define success for the for-profit sector.

2) Nonprofits should provide opportunities for individuals to engage in activities and conversations that widen their circle of connections beyond family and friends to other community members.

3) Nonprofits should encourage the development of emerging leaders and provide opportunities for individuals and the community as a whole to sharpen and strengthen leadership skills.

4) Nonprofits should work to build trust between communities and to bridge relationships among diverse constituencies.

Public Accountability

5) Nonprofits must publicly account for their finances, governance, disclosure practices and programs. 

6) Nonprofits should be inclusive in their activities — remaining open to new participants and ideas as well as external input — and conduct them in ways that are transparent, flexible and responsive to change.

7) Nonprofits should identify their constituents — the people who benefit from, are affected by, are keys to the success of, and/or share the values implicit in their work.

8) Nonprofits should conduct their activities with procedural fairness in decision making for constituents and the community.

9) Nonprofits should provide opportunities for people from the community to hold other public or private institutions accountable.

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Principles and Practices

Click on the links below to jump to the different sections of The Principles and Practices for Nonprofit Excellence.

• Introduction
• The Principles
• Role in Society

• Governance

• Planning

• Transparency and Accountability

• Fundraising

• Financial Management

• Human Resources

• Civic Engagement and Public Policy

• Strategic Alliances
• Evaluation
• Advice for Users
• The Origins of the Principles and Practices

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Principles and Practices for Nonprofit Excellence