About The Instructor
President and Chief Executive OfficerBBB Wise Giving Alliance
Herman “Art” Taylor is president and chief executive officer of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, the organization formed by the merger in early 2001 of the National Charities Information Bureau and the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Foundation, which housed the Philanthropic Advisory Service program.
As head of the Alliance, he oversees all aspects of the organization’s work, which includes setting standards for soliciting organizations, evaluating charities in relation to these standards, publishing the Wise Giving Guide, assisting local Better Business Bureau charity review programs, promoting charity accountability and providing a variety of materials on informed giving to individual, institutional and business donors. Appointed to his position in July 2001, the Wise Giving Alliance Board of Directors selected Mr. Taylor President & CEO for his record of accomplishments in the non-profit arena and his business and professional background.
Since he began in this position, the Alliance has increased the number of reports from 250 to over 1,400 of the nation’s most asked about and nationally soliciting charities. These reports compliment more than 10,000 reports on local charities produced by local Better Business Bureaus. In addition, the organization introduced and implemented the Accredited Charity Seal now used by national and local charities to indicate adherence to the comprehensive BBB Standards for Charity Accountability. It is estimated that more than 1 billion impressions of the charity seal exist in the public domain on solicitations, web sites and other charity publicity giving donors a clear concise and accessible means of knowing whether an organization meets the WGA standards.
In early 2012, Mr. Taylor led the integration of the Mobile Giving Foundation into the BBB family of organizations. This effort now assures that charities using the BBB Mobile Giving Foundation will comply with the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability and thus give donors greater comfort with the charities they support via mobile giving.
Mr. Taylor is a respected and sought after voice in the non-profit sector on charity accountability and transparency issues. He is a regular and featured speaker at charity gatherings and reporters often quote him in newspaper stories. He appears frequently on broadcast and cable news programs. He has testified before both U.S. House and Senate committees offering guidance on ways to improve the ethical behavior and trustworthiness of charities.
Before joining the Alliance, Mr. Taylor headed the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, Inc. (OICA) from 1990 to 1999. During his tenure, the OICA network of employment and training programs grew to serve more than two million disadvantaged and under-skilled Americans, with affiliates in 70 cities.
He has served on numerous non-profit boards throughout his career. He was vice chair of Independent Sector, where he was a board member from 1998 to 2003. He has been a trustee of Franklin & Marshall College since 1993. He is a Vestry Member and Senior Warden of Christ Episcopal Church, Clinton Md. Parrish.