Welcome to vantage point online

At Volunteer Vancouver, our mission is to inspire & build leadership in the voluntary sector

One of the ways we do this is through Vantage Point — our issue-based newsletter. This edition draws on the experience and expertise of Outi Flynn, Director, Knowledge Center at BoardSource, Don McCreesh, Imagine Canada Board Chair, and Jeffrey Wilcox, President and Chief Executive Officer of Executive Consulting Canada. Your comments are welcome — please email us at vantagepoint@volunteervancouver.ca.

Developing a Code of Ethics: Let Your Values Guide You

By Outi Flynn

Unethical behavior in not-for-profit — particularly charitable — organizations often gets the limelight in the press. Proactively creating codes of ethics that are based on the core values of an organization, is the starting point in defining the expected norms for everyone involved with the organization.
Read the full article here>

Public Trust & the Charitable Sector

By Don McCreesh

As charities face greater scrutiny from the media, donors, the Canada Revenue Agency, and the general public, boards of directors need to be increasingly vigilant about ensuring that their organizations are behaving ethically at all times and in all areas. In response to this challenge, Imagine Canada recently revised its Ethical Fundraising and Financial Accountability Code and has started to engage the charitable sector in a discussion about the value of other standards.
Read the full article here>

Ethics and Capacity-Building: Leading Organizations To Higher Ground In Their Service To Others

By Jeffrey Wilcox

“Capacity-building” has become a buzz-word in the not-for-profit sector over the past few years. And, it has happened for good reason: the funding community provided sufficient resources to catapult the concept into vogue.
Read the full article here>

“I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee.”
— Bella Azbug

What Hat Am I Wearing?
The Ethics of Role Changes

By Colleen Kelly

For some, it is not ethical to ask a volunteer to be accountable. The idea that volunteers are not required to do a task is absolutely true; however, if they say they will, we must hold them to it, and make sure they do as they have committed to do. Organizations must hold volunteers accountable. How can we deliver our mission if some people have an option to do – or not do - their part?
Read the full article here>

Brian's Bookshelf

Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector Review by Brian Fraser

In this review of the Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector, Brian outlines the standards’ eight guiding principles and highlights which standards are most applicable to the opportunities and challenges faced by not-for-profit organizations today.
Read Brian's review here>

About Volunteer Vancouver

The mission of Volunteer Vancouver is to inspire & build leadership in the voluntary sector. This publication is intended to be a medium of communication and information for the many organizations active in the volunteer and not-for-profit sector. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect official policy of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Vancouver.

Volunteer Vancouver
1183 Melville, Vancouver, BC
V6E 2X5 Canada
t 604.875.9144
f 604.875.0710
www.volunteervancouver.ca

A United Way Member Organization and funded in part by the City of Vancouver.