January 10, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Nonprofit Strategic Planning: Leveraging Sarbanes-Oxley Best Practices
by Peggy M. Jackson
Before beginning to create a comprehensive plan for the future, nonprofit groups should set aside four weeks to put into effect the practices encouraged by the Sarbanes-Oxley law, writes Peggy M. Jackson, a planning consultant.
Ms. Jackson provides readers with background on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed in 2002 to “raise the bar for integrity and competence for publicly traded companies.” Although only a few of the law’s provisions affect charities, she notes that the legislation has many concepts that can help promote accountability in the nonprofit world.
She discusses internal controls, conflict-of-interest policies, and a codes of ethics, and she includes sample policies.
Those standards can help with strategic planning, Ms. Jackson writes, in part because they enable charity officials to see “where the nonprofit is now, where it wants to go, and what it will need to move to the next level.”
Chapters offer advice on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, diagnosing and treating organizational weaknesses such as poor communication or a lack of public trust, crafting a strategic plan, and using the plan once it is finished.
Ms. Jackson also includes talking points to be used at meetings of an organization’s leaders and board of directors.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Fourth Floor, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (201) 748-6000; fax (201) 748-6088; http://www.wiley.com; 202 pages; $39.95; ISBN 978-0-470-12076-7.
