Legal and Ethical Issues
One of the frequent worries of board members is whether they might ever be sued and end up having to pay out their own savings in the event of a judicial decision holding them responsible for some disaster that befell the organization they govern. Many of these worries are exaggerated but the sites in this section help clarify what board liability is, how much of a risk there is of the board being sued and the pros and cons of holding liability insurance to protect against this risk.
Boards also often face ethical issues such as conflicts of interest among members. Here are recommended policies for dealing with them.
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A key board responsibility is to assure that its organization is in compliance with all laws that relate to its activities. To get an idea of the nature and extent of these laws, have a look at this super Canadian site dealing with all aspects of the law related to non profit organizations, from board liability to fund raising to tax law. It is provided by the Alberta-based Legal Studies Program of the University of Alberta Faculty of Extension. See also the "Law Now Reprint Series" on this site.Not-for-profit and Charity Law -
Registered Charities in Canada must comply with many directives in order to maintain their charitable status. This is an excellent checklist for reminding you of what you need to do. It also contains URLs for websites that tell you how to do it. Click on 'no image' and scroll down to "Charity Legal Checklist" at the bottom of the page.Charity Law Information Program -
Here, all in one place, is a list of everything the tax department wants from you and the services it provides for nonprofits.Charity Village -
This is a collection of resources related to various aspects of the law affecting Canadian charities. It is just getting going so it is worth signing up for their regular email communiques. Click "No Image" to the left.Charity Law Information Program
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This useful online booklet from the Government of Canada covers all aspects of the liability risks that can arise for the boards of directors of non profit organizations.Industry Canada -
"Creating a code of ethics for your organization". This is a site from Prof. Chris MacDonald of Dalhousie University covering all aspects of ethics issues for nonprofits. Maintaining an ethical organizations is one of the responsibilities of boards that is often overlooked.Ehticsweb.ca -
In this book, Rushworth Kidder explains how to resolve the toughest kind of dilemma we are likely to face: that of choosing between right and right. Kidder presents a practical framework to help us find the answers to ethical dilemmas, from the most private and personal to the most public and global.Institute for Global Ethics -
Always a potentially thorny issue for boards is how members should behave when there is a conflict of interest between their board role and other roles they may play in other organizations. This article covers what conflict of interest is and the kind of policy boards need to adopt to minimize it.Idealist.org