I am an independent consultant serving businesses in my community. I would like to help some nonprofits too. Can you tell me about some ethical ways to help?

Thank you for wanting to help local nonprofits. Most business consultants have skills they can really use! I will try to answer in terms of both unpaid and paid ways to help.

That said, you may need to learn quite a bit about the differing laws, needs, and practices in nonprofits in order for your skills to be used well. Be prepared to learn from and about nonprofits, not just come in as the expert. If you market Jaguars, a high-quality costly marketing package is a must. If you market protection for jaguars in the wild, donors may see glossy marketing pieces as a waste of money. Every consulting specialty has to go through such shifts in thinking when serving nonprofits, or they do them a disservice. In my field, governance, I see terrible results in charities that have blindly adopted corporate governance practices unsuited to their charitable status.

If you belong to a professional association, they may have a nonprofit special interest group that would help you learn more. The Canadian Institute for Chartered Accountants, for example, has one. There are free and low-cost resources on the Internet, such as the Consultants forum and newsletter at www.charitychannel.com. Many books are published each year specific to the nonprofit sector. There is likely at least one a year in your specialty, and probably a periodical or two as well. A couple of places to start looking are www.wilder.org/pubs/ and www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-2991.html.

Of course, you can bring your current skills and knowledge to a volunteer task force, committee, or board. As long as you have some humility about what you do not know, your expertise should be warmly welcomed. You may have to talk to a number of nonprofits to find the right fit at any moment in time. If your local nonprofits don’t seem to need what you are offering, consider virtual volunteering. Don’t forget to consider your professional association; they need volunteers too.

Rather than approaching nonprofits individually, check with your local volunteer centre (some are better than others at understanding how consultants can help charities). See if your professional association helps to find matches (see www.oba.org/en/admin/affiliated_en/volunteer.aspx for an example – for lawyers). Dedicated management support organizations (MSOs) such as the Calgary Centre for Nonprofit Management and the Niagara Centre for Community Leadership help match consultants with charities, though there are very few MSOs in Canada compared to the USA. Your local United Way may also have an agency services section. Some MSOs pay consultants and some use only volunteers.

You can also help nonprofits by having a special low rate for them, or serving a pro bono client each year. These clients should be treated just like a client paying the full rate, and given the same quality of service. You may get good referrals from them, as some of their board members are likely business people.

Some people think you can get a tax receipt for services, but that is not allowed under Canadian or US law. You can get a tax receipt for giving money. The money should not be linked to a business relationship, so do NOT sign back a cheque paying for your services. The receipt might also be invalid if you made a commitment to a donation in your contract for services. (Caveat: I am not an accountant or a lawyer. Canadians can refer to www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/charities/policy/cpc/cpc-017-e.html and Item (d) in www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it110r3/it110r3-e.html#P173_15412). Remember that what the charity pays you is income regardless of how much you donate in the same year. Your business costs to earn that income are deductible as for any other client.

There are other ways for small businesses to help nonprofits. You can make donations, and even sole practitioners can sign the Imagine pledge to donate at least 1% of pre-tax profits (www.imagine.ca). You can give away old equipment when upgrading, and provide meeting space or other such aid at no cost to your business. You can even revise your mission statement to make your company a social enterprise one, like Ben and Jerry’s (take a look at www.benjerry.com/our_company).

Even though self-employed people often lose income and billable hours when helping nonprofits, I see them volunteering on average MORE than their corporate peers, even when companies support volunteering. Being able to help our communities when and how we wish is one of the perks of self-employment. We can also keep costs low for community clients. Our time may be more flexible, and the networking can be very meaningful to people who work alone at home. I wish every independent consultant would find ways every year to help their community!

Since 1992, Jane Garthson has dedicated her consulting and training business to creating better futures for our communities and organizations through values-based leadership. She is a respected international voice on governance, strategic thinking and ethics. Jane can be reached at jane@garthsonleadership.ca.

To submit a dilemma for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact editor@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.