Those who attended our June 12^th conference on “Advancing trust in the Charitable Sector” benefited from the expertise of a variety of experts and thought leaders who provided a broad overview of accountably and trust issues facing charities in the United States and abroad.  While I intend to produce future blogs on some of the discussions that took place, I want to share a few highlights for those who were unable to join us. 

Security & Privacy: Alison Lefrak of the Federal Trade Commission (Senior Attorney, Division of Privacy and Identity Theft Protection) explained how the FTC plays a leading role in addressing online privacy and security protections for consumers and that it supported proposed data security legislation that would give FTC jurisdiction to bring cases against nonprofits as well.

Cultural Differences that Influence Trust: Representatives from the Taiwan NPO Self Regulation Alliance and DZI (Germany’s charity monitoring organization) explained how they report on charities in their respective countries and the significance of their work in strengthening donor trust.

ALS Association & Ice Bucket Challenge:  Carrie Martin Munk, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, ALS Association, gave a fascinating summary of how ALS Association handled the large volume of donations they received and described their ice bucket plans for 2015. 

Gaining Trust of New Generations:  Derrick Feldmann, President & Founder of Achieve, talked about how charities have sought to engage Millennials and noted that he is working on a revised study on Millennials and charities.

Communicating Charity Value & Inspiring Trust:  Andrew Watt, President & CEO, Association of Fundraising Professionals, underscored the significant role of ethical standards in ensuring a trustworthy charitable sector and reminded everyone that true change takes time and continuing effort to achieve and is not quickly accomplished.

The audience appreciated the observations and insights provided by these and other speakers and had an opportunity to raise additional points during the Q&A session after each panel.

We thank all the presenters and participants and will be providing links to slides and other information from this conference.

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors.  Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving.

Finally, remember to let us know by going to https://give.org/ask-us-about-a-charity1/ if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance