Over 150 charities in the Republic of Ireland have agreed to be bound by a new voluntary code of practice which its authors describe as "a tool to demonstrate trustworthiness".
They have also called on the government to implement the 2009 Charities Act which provides for state regulation.
The code of practice was launched this morning in Dublin by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan.
It provides, for the first time, clear guidelines on the roles, duties and responsibilities of those who run community, voluntary or charitable organisations here. For example, it deals with conflicts of interests which directors may face in the course of discharging their duties.
It took three years for a working group of eight charities to develop.
Deirdre Garvey, who chaired the Group, told this morning's launch in the Mansion House the enthusiastic response showed that charities care passionately about working to the highest possible standards.
She told representatives of over 400 charities that to maintain the public trust they depend on, it is essential that charities uphold high standards of governance, accountability and transparency.
The working group called on the government to implement as soon as possible the 2009 Charities Act which provides for state regulation. Recently Minister Hogan announced that the government had no money to do this.
Ms Garvey said that, in the absence of adequate regulation, the sector had shown great initiative by developing the voluntary code, particularly when many charities are struggling with funding and an increasing demand for their services.
INKEx to cease trading
Meanwhile, it has been announced that the Irish Nonprofits Knowledge Exchange (INKEx) is to go into voluntary liquidation.
A company statement criticizes the government for turning down an offer from a private philanthropy to consider matching any public funding that might be provided for the next three years.
Between 2009 and 2011, INKEx built the first-ever and only comprehensive data repository for the non-profit sector. It included digitized governance and financial information on more than 8,000 public benefit companies.
It was compiled and updated daily by re-using public information and publishing it on a free, searchable public website.
The portal was a one-stop shop where the public could review the compliance of any nonprofit with a variety of codes - such as the fundraising or governance best practice standards, child protection regulations and Garda registration.
The company's Chief Executive, Patricia Quinn says it was plunged into a crisis in 2011 when Minster Alan Shatter announced without notice that a three-year public funding programme was being withdrawn a year ahead of schedule.
This was temporarily averted at the end of October when part-funding was offered on revised terms to the end of the year.
Ms Quinn says that even though INKEx had created a de facto register of charities and an online environment where charities were already registered to provide a range of regulatory and other disclosures, the determination of the Minister for Justice to defer implementation of the Charities Act, 2009 led the company to accept most reluctantly that no further public funding would be available.
INKEx says it was able to trade for the first half of 2012 thanks to donations from charities, philanthropies and private companies and from data sales.
But it says that despite wide acknowledgment of the cost-saving and other benefits of a single repository of nonprofit data, and notwithstanding the offer from a major private philanthropy to consider match-funding Government's contribution for the next three years, the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan - who is responsible for nonprofit sector policy - and the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter - who is responsible for sector regulation - declined to offer funding.
It also says its initiative has provided business intelligence that would show for the first time where the Government is spending public money in a sector that receives over €6 billion in grants annually and employs 100,000 people.
