Saturday, February 23, 2008

Hospital’s Accounting Is Under Fire by a Union

A union is trying to force nonprofit groups like hospitals to comply with standards of governing similar to those that federal law requires of private companies.

In particular, the union, the 1.9-million-member Service Employees International, argues that a Boston hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, violated those standards by including its losses from bad debts in its tally of the charity care it provides.

In a letter to Beth Israel Deaconess directors who also sit on the boards of for-profit companies, the union contends that the standards they apply to governing those companies require them to make the hospital restate the value it placed on the charitable care it provided in 2005 and 2006.

Hospital’s Accounting Is Under Fire by a Union

Labels: accountancy, non-profit

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Can the Nonprofit World Govern Itself?

In the wake of several high-profile charity scandals and with observers predicting that Congress will pass legislation similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for nonprofit organizations, Independent Sector convened the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector to create a set of guidelines designed to help groups govern themselves.

Those guidelines, which spell out principles of governance, fund-raising, and management that charitable groups should follow, were approved in October. But several key questions remain. Will nonprofit leaders pay attention to them? Do they go far enough? Are the guidelines enough to satisfy those on Capitol Hill who want to pass new legislation to regulate charities?

Can the Nonprofit World Govern Itself?

Labels: corporate governance, non-profit

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