Albuquerque Community Foundation Wins the 2008 Samaritan Counseling Center’s New Mexico Ethics in Business Award in the Not-for-Profit Category
The 9th Annual New Mexico Ethics in Business Awards will be presented, with over 800 New Mexicans in attendance, on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 6 PM during the Awards dinner at the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town. Albuquerque community Foundation is the winner in the 2008 Not-for-Profit Category.
The Samaritan Counseling Center has hosted the New Mexico Ethics in Business Awards since 2000. The program honors organizations and individuals who promote ethical business conduct for the benefit of the workplace, the marketplace, the environment and the community.
Ethical business practice is determined by right organizational and individual behavior based on high standards and exemplary practices.
Albuquerque Community Foundation protects others' money
The Albuquerque Community Foundation was created in 1981 by a group of community leaders whose goal was to help donors wishing to provide charitable donations to the community to increase the size of their endowments.
Now caring for more than 300 endowments from private people, the foundation has built those funds through sound, conservative investments overseen by its board. In the last 26 years, it has increased its assets to a little less than $60 million.
But helping others help New Mexico wouldn't be enough to earn the foundation an Ethics in Business Award, said selection committee head Duffy Swan.
What did earn it the award is the way it conducts its daily business, he said.
"They have a very specific code regarding conflicts of interest, confidentiality and ethical standards regarding the source and use of donations," Swan said. "And they have a history of turning down contributions if they feel there is an ethical conflict involved."
In 2007, the foundation earned the national standards seal from the Council on Foundations. Gaining the seal requires that a foundation figuratively live in a glass house, meeting strict standards of donor services, grant making and administration, and to be as transparent as possible to stakeholders, he said.
Finally, in a step that's unusual for a nonprofit, the foundation maintains a whistle-blower policy that encourages anyone connected with it to come forward if they encounter questionable practices.
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