Fall 2015 Issue of Horizons

NOT-FOR-PROFIT

Ethics & Your Organization by Sharon Latimer, CPA & Kim Ryan, CPA, CGMA

A ny entity—for profit or not-for-profit—will benefit from highlighting ethics as the leading core value upon which all business decisions are made. Unfortunately, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ 2014 Global Fraud Study, this is not always the case within the not-for-profit industry which is experiencing growth in both the number of fraud instances, as well as growth in the median dollar loss per fraud. Fortunately, there are actions, highlighted on the following pages, which not-for-profits may take to protect their organizations’ reputations and assets which require little or no financial resources.

Ethical Behavior Defined Ethical behavior can be defined in countless ways, but some of the simplest definitions are:

∙ Doing what is right when faced with a moral decision

∙ Doing the right thing when no one else is watching Ethical behavior requires us to always think about how our business decisions and personal actions may affect the organization and anyone associated with the organization. How ethics is viewed by those at the top of your organization sets the tone for every other aspect of the workplace. Not-for-profit organizations are subject to heightened risks by their very nature and due to the related myriad of compliance

page 42 | horizons Fall 2015