Skip to Navigation

Board Commitments and Aspirations

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors adopted two important guiding documents: Core Commitments and Aspirations. The purpose of these documents is to act as the Board’s guiding principles and to assure stakeholders of the intent and integrity with which the Board of Directors leads the organization.

CPT Board Core Commitments

I. A Dedication to Ethics
The CPT Board and staff members are dedicated to serving in a highly ethical manner. We achieve this by:

  • Providing prudent oversight and stewardship of financial resources. This includes deployment of resources in an efficient manner to fulfill our mission and never for personal, financial or political gain.
  • Actively engaging in forthright, respectful discussions regarding CPT affairs–ensuring that we conduct ourselves in a manner that honors the positive reputation and collaborative nature of the CPT.
  • Being an inclusive organization–building on the diverse perspectives, talents and experience of our Board members to enrich the culture of the CPT.
  • Accurately recording our actions to maximize accountability and ensure transparency.


II. A Passionate Commitment to Ethics Education

The CPT Board is passionately committed to promoting ethics education. We achieve this by:

  • Encouraging staff members to develop and offer practical tools that help businesses, firms, agencies and nonprofit organizations embrace ethical principles and practices.
  • Embracing and celebrating best ethical business practices through innovative recognition programs, conferences and other communiqués.
  • Providing guidance and support to the CPT leadership that enables them to proactively engage higher learning  institutions in the development and sustainment of curriculum that fosters ethical insights.

CPT Board Aspirations

1. Promoting Trust and Integrity

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors is committed to making choices that inspire trust and display integrity. As a nonprofit organization, the Center for the Public Trust accepts donations and contributions from many corporations and individuals who support similar values. Because we are dedicated to upholding the values of trust and integrity, we promise never to allow the financial contributions by which we are funded to influence the ethical information that we provide, the practices that we promote or the awards we present. The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors is dedicated to acting ethically in all aspects of our organization in order to inspire trust and integrity in our mission.

 

2. Supporting Ethics Education

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors believes strongly that acting ethically is essential to being a successful business, firm, agency or non-profit organization. It is because of this belief that the NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors is committed to providing the public with access to ethics education. This is achieved by the wealth of materials that can be found on our Web site, including articles on ethics and newsletters. It is also accomplished through our educational conferences for professionals and through our support of student chapters on college campuses.

 

3. Maintaining a Positive Perspective

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors believes that a positive attitude best serves the actions of the organization in fulfilling its mission. We believe in keeping a positive perspective and in sharing our positive view with others. The NASBA Center for the Public Trust highlights the positive in the world by dedicating a portion of our Web site to “good news.” We also believe in celebrating those who do good. The NASBA Center for the Public Trust gives awards to those companies, firms, agencies and nonprofit organizations who are on the front lines in the battles to restore confidence and trust and who make ethical choices and a positive impact in the world.

 

4. Engaging in and Supporting Business Practices that are Honest and that Strive to Make a Difference

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors is conscientious and persistent about engaging in business practices that are honest and working with people who want to make a real, positive difference. The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors and staff are individuals who strive to personify its values in their own professional lives and who are involved in the organization for the opportunity to make a difference and promote public trust.

 

5. Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors believes that learning ethics is important, but that practicing ethics is paramount. Many professionals, including CPAs, are required to take ethics courses or pass an ethics examination in order to fulfill licensure requirements, but the fulfillment of those requirements does not always lead to the execution of ethical practices. The NASBA Center for the Public Trust Board of Directors aims to reach out and help businesses, firms, agencies and nonprofit organizations bridge the gap between the understanding of ethics to the implementation of ethical procedures and practices. We believe that a key to enhancing public trust is that ethics must be more than a topic, more than slogan, more than a regulatory requirement. We, as members of the Board, believe that the CPT can best promote public trust through ethics in action.

 

6. Governing with Openness, Mutual Respect, Candor and Personal Accountability

Members of the NASBA Center For the Public Trust Board of Directors understand that the public the CPT serves, as well as donors, volunteers and related organizations support the CPT because they trust the Board to govern the CPT with transparency; and recognize that the best, most defensible decisions are those that are transparently made by individuals who can be respectful of others’ views but candid in their own perspectives. We realize that in an environment fraught with cynicism, trust must be earned every day. Thus, regardless of laws, regulations, bylaws, or policies, each of us has an individual duty to routinely self-assess the ways in which we have in the past, and could in the future, better serve the NASBA Center for the Public Trust.