Fractured application: hopefully, bits and pieces won't make a "hole".(GENERAL RAMBLINGS)

"Hope springs a kernel ... Old farmer saying."--Denny Crane

As the "name on the door" at Crane Poole and Schmidt, the attorney Denny Crane, played by William Shatner on the television show Boston Legal, generally gets enough right to make his point. Everyone knows that the phrase is "hope springs eternal," except possibly Denny Crane. But Denny Crane's self-assured malaprop gets the information across enough that he might actually have a point.

So too, then, comes the report from the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector. It outlines 33 points of governance that executives should apply to their nonprofits. It's all voluntary compliance. The guiding force behind the publication, Independent Sector, won't even require its members to adhere to the suggestions.

But, it appears a key reason for the multi-year quest for governance guidelines--appeasing government regulators--has been accomplished. At Independent Sector's recent annual conference, representatives of the Internal Revenue Service and key state regulators lauded the report.

The sector had been under siege from the Senate Finance Committee and various regulators regarding what they considered to be a lack of oversight and abuse by executives and boards.

Effusive praise for the effort came from both Steven T. Miller, commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Governmental Entities Division of the Internal Revenue Service, and Belinda Johns, senior assistant attorney general and head of the State of California's Charitable Trusts Section. The interesting thing about the comments was that fewer than 0.5 percent of nonprofits are audited every year by the IRS and Johns admitted that most of the cases opened are because of complaints and tips, not investigations or inquiries by the state.

So although there are already rules, regulations and laws on the books regarding nonprofit governance, some charities are allegedly still running red lights because the cops can't be everywhere.

Just as most people stop for red lights, even at three in the morning when nobody else is on the road, the vast majority of charities are in compliance. But, there is no doubt that the Panel activity and report has helped to keep greater regulation at bay for now.

Here's the next step: More than two-dozen sector leaders were key members of the process. While Independent Sector has not mandated that its members adhere to the recommendations, those who have signed on must enforce the ideas within their networks and affiliates.

Sure, it's a pipe dream that there will be full compliance, even by those who have good intentions. When it comes to this report, leaders have to go one better than Denny Crane, who remarked when speaking about his then-fianc6e: "If it matters to Bev, then I, Denny Crane, have to pretend that it matters to me.'"

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