7. Be Transparent

Your donors, volunteers, and staff will have much more confidence in your organization’s work if they know how you’re doing it. Use your website to share documents that provide information about your finances, operations, governance, and impact.

Information that should be made available on your organization’s website.

• Vision and mission statements;
• Statement of values and code of ethics;
• Conflict of interest policy;
• Form 990 or 990-PF, with all parts and schedules (except contributors’ list with amounts, which is protected under the Privacy Act);
• Most recent audited financial statements;
• Information on programs and impact of your work;
• Information on evaluation procedures for assessing effectiveness and performance of the organization;
• Annual Report or other regular report on accomplishments;
• Information on accreditations the organization holds or certifications/standards it may meet;
• List of board members and officers, and staff (if you have security concerns you may refer inquiries to your switchboard or to a general information email);
• List of contributors (amounts of contributions should be disclosed only with permission of contributor); donor requests for anonymity should be honored;
• Form 1023 (the organization’s original application for recognition of tax-exempt status);
• Bylaws or charter documents; and
• Other relevant policies and documents.

Next Page: Establish and Support a Policy on Reporting Suspected Misconduct or Malfeasance (aka "Whistleblower Policy")