In earning a Better Business Bureau (BBB) accreditation, one local nonprofit is hoping to reinforce its fiscal responsibility and community values. And Rhode Island’s BBB, which is under a new management structure, is hoping that others will follow suit.
Family Service of Rhode Island CEO Margaret Holland McDuff recently announced that her nonprofit is the fourth in Rhode Island to receive the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability accreditation.
“Our board took it on, saying we should meet the highest standards, whether it’s for nonprofit or for-profit,” Holland McDuff told Providence Business News. “We should see if we’re using every public and private dollar to the best of our ability.”
The Providence nonprofit – which offers social services ranging from outpatient counseling to foster care for children in state custody – last year had a $20 million budget, more than 80 percent of which is from state and federal sources, said Holland McDuff, who took over as CEO during 2001. The nonprofit’s budget has doubled during the last five years, she said
When Holland McDuff started with Family Service as a social worker during 1990, there were about 30 employees. Now there are about 400 employees.
She described the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability accreditation process as “grueling.”
“It includes everything from board leadership to governance to management to quality indicators and, certainly, fiduciary responsibility,” Holland McDuff said. “It’s all the safeguards that go with that and a commitment to quality.”
It’s the second accreditation for Family Service of Rhode Island, which is also recognized by the Council on Accreditation, a board that recognizes nonprofits and for-profits that work in social services, said Family Service Senior Vice President Stephen Louis Hug.
Only 55 nonprofits around New England have so far received the Boston BBB’s Charity Accountability accreditation. In Rhode Island, the three others that have earned it are the Star Kids Scholarship Program, in Middletown, Rhode Island Community Food Bank and Dorcas Place Adult & Family Learning Center, both in Providence.
The Boston BBB acquired the formerly independent Rhode Island BBB earlier this year.
The beginning of this year – when the Boston BBB acquired the formerly independent Rhode Island BBB – signaled the start of a push for certifications in Rhode Island, said Paula Fleming, BBB vice president of communications and marketing. The Boston office now covers Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.
The Rhode Island office, with five staffers, has been moved from Warwick to Coventry, Fleming said, adding that “we anticipate a growth in accreditation in Rhode Island.”
At Family Service of Rhode Island, Hug said the change in Rhode Island BBB’s leadership was visible right way. “What I saw was that right away they were sending out mailings to all the state’s nonprofits,” he said. “We got one in early February.”
Overall, the number of complaints received by the BBB against charitable organizations is slight, according to BBB data.
Nationally, the BBB logged 244 complaints against charities during 2007. That accounts for significantly less than 1 percent of the more than 800,000 complaints logged with BBB that year, according to statistics released by the organization. (The charitable industry was nestled between Cooking Utensils with 245 complaints and Retail Novelties with 242 complaints.) The complaints that the charity industry settled – 197 – gave the industry an 80-percent settlement rate with the BBB, slightly higher than the national average of 74 percent for all BBB complaints during the year.
While accreditation process can help the BBB financially – many companies pay an annual fee (from which Family Service of Rhode Island, as a nonprofit, was exempted) of between $1,000 and $15,000 – it is at its essence a way to show investors that a charity is run responsibly, Holland McDuff said.
“It’s really been developed to help philanthropy and donors to make good decisions in choosing where their charitable dollars go,” she said. “It’s so they really can have confidence in those charities that are using their dollars and investments to the best of their ability.” •
