Accountability is at the top of Ice911’s priorities. Just as investors want assurances that publicly traded companies are ethically and financially sound, our donors are increasingly demanding to see measurable results from their donations. As a result, Ice911 constantly reflects on how we operate and put in place savvy strategies to earn and maintain the public trust.
Without the trust of the public, there would be no charitable sector.
Ice911 is taking key steps to make our processes more effective and our activities more transparent. The bottom line: this accountability is both good stewardship and good for the bottom line.
What is Accountability?
Accountability is all about being answerable to those who have invested their trust, faith, and money in you. Nonprofits must be accountable to multiple stakeholders, including private and institutional donors; local, state, and federal agencies; volunteers; program recipients; and the public at large.
Who is Responsible for Accountability?
EVERYONE who works for a nonprofit, whether as a paid staff member or a volunteer board director, has a role to play in ensuring the organization is answerable to its constituents.
Chief financial officers, for example, must file accurate and timely tax forms, and provide clear and accurate financial reports to board members and major donors. Fundraisers need to report back to donors on how their dollars were spent and what results the organization is producing with their donors' investments. Board members, meanwhile, need to provide sound fiduciary and management oversight to ensure that the nonprofit’s activities are efficient and transparent and that its reputation remains above reproach.
What Makes up Accountability?
There are three components to accountability — financial and regulatory compliance, stewardship, and donor trust. To establish accountability across an organization, every department must both comply with nonprofit financial standards and demonstrate to key stakeholders that it has put in place the systems and oversight needed to manage funds. And when problems arise, nonprofits need to acknowledge them, fix them, and move on. To do otherwise is to risk ending up in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
How Ice911 is Accountable
We’re proud to use the practices all nonprofits can put in place to make their financial processes more effective and their activities more transparent.
This is what Thomas McLaughlin, a nationally recognized expert in nonprofit financial management and organizational restructuring, calls the four principles of accountability:
Systems (procedures and technologies, including internal controls and smart software that produce predictable results)
Oversight (including financial reporting and solid governance structures)
Culture (an intangible quality that reflects the values of the organization)
Knowledge (professional financial expertise, along with a well-trained board and staff)
While “SOCK” is a good way to think about accountability, in practical terms Ice911 has translated these principles into 7 actionable items:
Establishing an audit committee
Ensuring auditor communications with the board
Defining organizational policies and monitoring compliance
Reporting finances
Establishing internal controls
Providing for whistleblowers
Public disclosure
Our role is to be good stewards of the dollars you give us to restore Arctic ice and to help us build the capacity needed to get there. These systems and processes are our way of guaranteeing our stakeholders, staff members, board members, and donors that we are fiscally responsible with financial, administrative and technical operations.
If you have any questions on how Ice911 tackles accountability, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us at donate@ice911.org.