A national expert on accrediting nonprofits says requiring Hawai'i charities to register with the state would be beneficial, giving people another way to evaluate organizations that get financial support from the public.

"Registration is important because it is one more vehicle for nonprofits to come forward in a very transparent way," said Richard Klarberg, president and chief executive of the New York-based Council on Accreditation. He spoke after a speech he gave at a meeting of the Hawai'i Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations.

Hawai'i is one of about a dozen states that do not require charities to register. Because of that gap and the relatively meager resources the state devotes to charity monitoring, national experts in a September Advertiser series described Hawai'i as a "wild west," with little independent oversight of the industry.

Klarberg yesterday told the Hawai'i alliance that the notion that "no one is watching" charities here and elsewhere has been overblown.

But while many nonprofits already get substantial oversight from the government, foundations, the media and other sources, resulting in more scrutiny than what the government itself gets, more should be done to restore or maintain the public's confidence in charities, he said.

One approach Klarberg recommended was for organizations to achieve independent accreditation, letting the public know that the charities not only subscribe to good governance principles but actually implement them. About 15 state charities are accredited or getting accreditation through Klarberg's council.

The key for a nonprofit to maintain the public's confidence, he said, is to serve its clients well and to have a positive impact on the community. "It has to be about outcomes," he said.

After his speech, Klarberg told The Advertiser that he supports Hawai'i adopting a registration requirement, even for small charities.

"Any organization that is deserving of the rights of being a nonprofit organization has to assume some of the responsibilities of being a nonprofit," he said.

The state attorney general's office supports adopting a registration requirement for charities that solicit money from the public, and people in the industry expect that office to push a bill in the upcoming legislative session. A representative from the office wouldn't comment yesterday on its legislation plans.

John Flanagan, president of the Hawai'i alliance, said adopting a uniform registration form that is used in the majority of other states makes sense. But until details of the planned legislation are known, he said he couldn't comment on what position his group will take.

Reach Rob Perez at rperez@honoluluadvertiser.com.