The charitable activities of the two Presidential candidates have had much scrutiny this election year. On the one side there are allegations of influence peddling by the Clinton Foundation and on the other claims of bribery with the Donald J Trump Foundation. 

These kinds of statements come as little surprise to those of us in the know because charities, like any enterprise always have some issues. The news coverage does highlight the important, and often overlooked, role that proper management should play in running a charity.

In Canada, most news stories on the charity sector focus on

• financial fraud,
• perceived high administrative overhead costs,
• opinions on high CEO charity salaries, or
• views about fundraising costs
• and little time and attention is spent on other management or operational practices. Even less time is spent on whether the work of the charity is actually effective which is where much more focus should be.

The scrutiny of the Trump and Clinton Foundations raise real, important, and valuable questions we need to discuss more as citizens and as a sector.

Fortunately, we have many tools easily available to us here in Canada to ensure the charity we represent are well run. A few examples include

• an excellent set of solid sector Standards like those developed by Imagine Canda,
• strong ethical codes including that developed by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and
• information on good Board governance as promoted by groups like Board Source.
• Thankfully our elections are much more tame than the US. However, this is a great opportunity to learn from Secretary Clinton and Mr Trump's errors and ensure we provide excellent leadership and management here.

Ann Rosenfield, MBA, CFRE is an award-winning professional  who has been helping donors, volunteers, Boards, and neighbours make good decisions about charity for over 20 years. She is the principal for "Charitably Speaking" providing expert advice, interim leadership, and project support to nonprofits in areas including governance, strategic planning, fundraising, and nonprofit management. She has served as the Executive Director of a foundation with a staff of 2 and has also worked in a large, national charity with a staff of 1,000. In her spare time, she serves on the Board of Rainbow Railroad and volunteers with several local charities. She can be reached at ann@charitablyspeaking.com or via her blog at https://ca.linkedin.com/in/annrosenfieldcfre