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(Washington, DC, November 1, 2004)—Independent Sector
today announced the formation of an eight-member Expert Advisory
Group that will advise the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector IS
created earlier this month. The work of these experts will
support the Panel, formed at the encouragement of the U.S.
Senate Finance Committee to prepare recommendations for Congress
on how to improve the oversight and governance of charitable
organizations.
The advisory group includes some of America’s most knowledgeable
scholars and practitioners in crucial aspects of nonprofit
operations, such as government regulation, financial
accountability, and tax policy. Joel Fleishman, director of the
Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center for Ethics, Public Policy, and
the Professions at Duke University, and Marion Fremont-Smith,
senior research fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit
Organizations at Harvard University, will serve as co-conveners
of the group. The Expert Advisory Group will inform the Panel’s
work, as well as provide knowledge and perspectives on
recommendations from several working groups that will also
support the Panel.
The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector is part of a
year-long focus on charitable organizations by the Senate
Finance Committee in response to numerous reports in the media
of ethical lapses in governance, fundraising, and other
practices. Formed at the encouragement of Finance Committee
Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Max Baucus
(D-MT), the Panel is comprised of 24 nonprofit and philanthropic
leaders from a wide spectrum of public charities and private
foundations. The Finance Committee asked that the panel provide
a report of its initial findings and recommendations by February
2005 and a final report in the spring of 2005.
In addition to co-conveners Mr. Fleishman and
Mrs. Fremont-Smith, the members of the Expert Advisory Group are
Victoria Bjorklund, head of the Exempt Organizations Group at
the New York law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Evelyn
Brody, professor of law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at
the Illinois Institute of Technology; William Josephson, former
assistant attorney general-in-charge of the New York State Law
Department’s Charities Bureau; Lester M. Salamon, director of
the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins
Institute for Policy Studies; C. Eugene Steuerle, senior fellow
at the Urban Institute; and Eugene R. Tempel, executive director
of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
“The knowledge and experience of this stellar group of experts will contribute immeasurably to the effort to improve nonprofit governance and practice,” said Diana Aviv, IS president and CEO and executive director of the Panel. “Each member's expertise will inform the Panel's consideration of legislation, regulations, and practices that will shape the future operations of America's charities and foundations.” |
