Independent Sector

INDEPENDENT SECTOR’S WORK

Independent Sector serves as the premier meeting ground for the leaders of America's charitable and philanthropic sector. Since our founding in 1980, we have sponsored ground-breaking research, pressed for public policies that support a dynamic, independent sector, and created unparalleled resources so staff, boards and volunteers can improve their organizations and better serve their communities.

 Independent Sector fulfills our mission by:

 Advancing public policies that enable the nonprofit and philanthropic community to improve life locally nationally and globally. IS is currently focusing on issues such as mobilizing the nonprofit and philanthropic community in support of tax policies that advance their work; educating public officials about the work and value that the charitable sector brings to communities, and strengthening the advocacy capacity of nonprofits.

• Convening opportunities for sector leaders to work together on key issues. The most prominent forum of this kind is the Independent Sector Annual Conference. IS committees are another key part of developing collective strategies.
• Supporting the development of strategies to strengthen volunteering, voting, giving, and other forms of citizen engagement.
• Encouraging the sector to meet the highest standards of ethical practice and effectiveness. As part of our continuing efforts in this area, IS has convened the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, which has made recommendations in the areas of governance, fiduciary responsibility, transparency, ethical conduct government oversight, self-regulation, and financial accountability.
• Identifying critical trends affecting the work of charitable organizations including such issues as encouraging a sustainable and diverse leadership for the sector and encouraging organizations to assess the effectiveness of their strategies by charting their own impact.
• Serving as the voice of the independent sector to the media, government, business, and international voluntary communities.

Line of Business