I don’t disagree with this principle at all; as stated I believe that transparency is the fastest way to ensure that the trust required for a healthy member, donor and contributor base is earned and retained. As a director whose position is dependent on members trusting that I am complying with the legal requirements of the role and have the best interests of the Foundation in mind when I act as a director, I am happy that we have good transparency in these areas, and continue to improve it as I’ve described. The board is already the most scrutinised part of the Foundation, as it should be.
Perhaps it’s my mistake but from your explicit reference to state-level freedom of information legislation, and statement about “strong policy around access to information”, I have inferred something much stronger than something at the “top level” of the organisation. Typically such FOI legislation is very, very far-reaching, and can “touch” any public body - or even in the US anyone who receives funding from a public body - is subject to receive requests.
With such a “anyone can ask to see anything” policy in place across the Foundation, it would necessarily include our committees who are delegates of the board, all of our staff, any volunteers involved in receiving disbursements, etc. This means that you must implement policies regarding the retention of data at every level of such organisations, everyone must be aware that “the tapes are rolling”, training around legal and other liabilities must be given to people who might be subject to such requests, and administrative support is necessary to receive them and decide what information is appropriate to be shared.
Whilst I absolutely respect and appreciate the need for the overall organisation, board and leadership to be pro-active and transparent about the high-level decisions, strategy, resources, etc, I can’t pretend that it doesn’t consumes mental and emotional energy. I don’t want us to implement a policy that imposes this burden for committees, staff, volunteers, etc that makes any kind of informal decisions. I think it would discourage participation - ie that the cost outweighs the benefit.
To @mollydb’s question at Question to the ccandidates: Vision, leadership training, and transparency, I think the right path to build this transparency in the organisation is follow best practices of the non-profit sector rather than inventing our own policies - something like GuideStar’s Seal of Transparency seems like a great initiative, for instance.