Standards for Indigenous Not-for-Profit Organizations

The FMB has developed a new set of financial management standards and financial performance measures specifically tailored for Indigenous not-for-profit organizations (“NPOs”), including tribal councils operating as NPOs. These new NPO Standards build upon the FMB's experience as a standards-setter for First Nation governments. The new NPO Standards are effective September 1, 2021.

These new standards are intended to:

  • Set out best practices in financial management for NPOs
  • Demonstrate financial accountability and financial performance for NPOs who meet the standards

You can read about the new standards in these recently released documents:

Indigenous Not-for-Profit Organization Standards This document contains the NPO Standards effective September 1, 2021.
Indigenous Not-for-Profit Organization Standards (Redline) This document contains the NPO Standards effective September 1, 2021 and shows the changes from the version presented for comment in June 2020 with explanatory notes.
Standards for Indigenous Not-for-Profit Organizations – Decision Summary This document is intended as a companion document to the NPO Standards redline document. It provides a brief overview of the NPO Standards development process, the results of stakeholder outreach and overview of the changes to the NPO Standards.

Standard-Setting Process

The FMB follows clear procedures when developing and setting standards. These procedures are important to make the standard setting process as transparent as possible and to allow interested individuals and organizations to provide comments. The FMB's standard setting process is described on the Standard Setting Process page.

The FMB announced the proposed NPO Standards in June 2020. Stakeholders were invited to read about the proposed standards in the document, Proposed Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations – Invitation to Comment, and to provide their comments and feedback by September 30, 2020. This comment deadline was further extended to April 30, 2021 to recognize the impact of the global pandemic and the disruption it has caused for many of the FMB's stakeholders.

Feedback on the proposed NPO Standards was received in the form of letters, emails and responses to the online survey. The FMB's standards-setting team held many one-on-one conversations with NPOs and tribal councils to collect feedback about the proposed standards and to understand what makes their organizations unique. The final NPO Standards reflect the feedback we received during the comment period.

Working with the FMB

NPOs and tribal councils interested in working with the FMB are encouraged to contact us.

The FMB is not currently able to issue certificates to NPOs. The FMB anticipates being able to provide certification services and capacity development services to NPOs in the future, contingent upon amendments to the First Nations Fiscal Management Act.