Final Report of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector
The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector is an independent effort by charities and foundations to ensure that the nonprofit community remains a vibrant and healthy part of American society. Formed by Independent Sector in October 2004 at the encouragement of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the Panel continues to prepare recommendations for Congress to improve the oversight and governance of charitable organizations. After giving the leaders of the committee an initial report in March, it provided its Final Report in June 2005. The Panel issued a supplemental report, and continues to focus on issues relating to self-regulation of the sector.
The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector is comprised of 24 nonprofit and philanthropic leaders whose organizations encompass great diversity in location, mission, perspective, and scope of work. Lorie Slutsky, president of the New York Community Trust, of New York, New York, and Cass Wheeler, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, of Dallas, Texas, are its co-conveners. Diana Aviv, Independent Sector president and CEO, is the Panel’s executive director, and Patricia Read, IS’s senior vice president for public policy and government affairs, is project director.
To benefit from the knowledge the nonprofit community has already developed, the Panel has received expert assistance from a series of groups. The Panel initially created an eight-member Expert Advisory Group; a nine-member Citizens Advisory Group; and five Work Groups, each of which focused on a specific area. In the spring of 2006, it also created an Advisory Committee on Self-Regulation of the Charitable Sector. As with the Panel, the members of these groups come from a wide spectrum of the nonprofit community in order to ensure that any recommendations recognize the sector’s diversity.
The Panel is also taking a number of steps to receive input from organizations across the country. It has provided a form on this site for visitors to make comments; it holds conference calls to update organizations and individuals about its work; and it conducted a series of field hearings to explain and obtain feedback on its work.
Download a copy of the Panel's Final Report (.pdf, 740 kb) at the site
Obtain a printed copy of the Final Report.
Obtain the Supplemental Report.
In June 2005, the Panel released a comprehensive series of recommendations intended to strengthen the ability of the nation’s 1.3 million charities and foundations to serve as responsible stewards of the public’s generosity.
This final report (.pdf, 740 kb), which incorporated input from thousands of people across the charitable community provided through field hearings and national conference calls, proposes a carefully integrated package of actions from charitable organizations, from Congress, and from the Internal Revenue Service. It recommends more than 120 actions to be taken by charitable organizations, by Congress, and by the Internal Revenue Service, which together would strengthen the sector’s transparency, governance, and accountability.
The Panel is encouraging charitable organizations to sign on to the report as a way to demonstrate to the public their commitment to the highest standards of ethical operation. Use the online form to add your organization to the list of endorsers. Also, see the list of organizations and individuals who have already signed on.
The Panel will offer supplemental comments in the fall on issues of financial reporting and transparency, accreditation and standard setting, and possible changes in the legal framework, including federal and state regulation of fundraising activities.
This April the Panel released a Supplemental Report that examined nine areas and made more than 20 additional recommendations.
