March is Ethics Month!
It’s ethics month! It’s an exciting time for all of us here in the nonprofit management profession because the practice of ethics is core to our work – and we get an entire month to talk about. As a member of the ASAE Ethics Committee, I’m pleased to be working with so many dedicated colleagues promoting ethics and their application. The Ethics Committee also provides useful tools for the nonprofit community to use to understand ethics and how to build their own ethics program at their organization.
As we discuss in our monthly ethics course in our Rogue Tulips education program, the word ethics is from the Greek word, “ethikos,” which means character. What kind of a person do you want to be? To be an ethical person is to consider the differences between good and bad and right and wrong. This is crucial to answering the question about what kind of person you want to be, as well as influencing how others perceive you. Character is all about choices and behaviors; most importantly it is about how we treat others.
In the nonprofit community it is crucial to understand ethics and how they affect the organization’s reputation. Every decision we make and action we take has the potential to impact how we and our organization are perceived. But ethics cannot just be external facing; ethics must be internal facing as well. How we treat each other in our organization will influence how we treat those outside our organization.
Quoting my article “The Practical Application of Ethics in the Nonprofit Environment,” published in the 2025 edition of the Associations Evolve Journal, I’d like you to consider these thoughts:
“Yet despite our unique role in the world, which should inspire good and ethical behavior, there is story after story of bad and unethical behavior by senior leadership and board members. Staff feel they can’t speak up when they see bad behavior and there are countless tales of bad bosses that intimidate and hold back those on their team that do try to speak up. Too often, people working at these organizations become frustrated and discouraged and they don’t think that their behavior will make a difference. Why bother if you will just be punished?
Ethics in the workplace are more important than ever as we see an increase in reported unethical behavior and a rise in retaliation. The Ethics & Compliance Initiative conducts regular surveys of the workplace and the trends are heading in the wrong direction in the post-COVID lockdown world. While reporting of unethical behavior is higher, so are retaliation rates and encouragement to either ignore or hide unethical behavior within an organization.
Findings from this survey include:
Employees under pressure to compromise workplace standards or the law.
Workplace misconduct is at an all-time high.
Globally, reporting of observed misconduct is at a record high.
Retaliation against employees reporting misconduct continues at unacceptable rates.
Few employees say they work in an ethical workplace culture.
Businesses – for us, nonprofit organizations – are not taking the steps that are proven to significantly reduce their risk.”
When it comes to the practice of ethics in our own organizations, we need to focus on the creation of an ethical culture and mindset. This must start at the top. If leaders are unethical then they create unethical workplaces. Fortunately, we have access to the ASAE Standards of Conduct which provide us with a reference point for making ethical choices and setting an ethical example. And, you can always contact the ASAE Ethics Committee for information and guidance. I contacted the committee for guidance back in 2022 and that’s how I got interested in applying to join the committee!
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” It all comes down to us and the individual actions we take. Make sure those actions have a grounding in ethical decision making.
