When it comes to ethics, nonprofits have always been held out as organizations that have the moral high ground. Now there's evidence showing that's not right.

A new Ethics Resource Center survey shows that non-profits are really struggling with it.

The study, National Nonprofit ethics survey, suggests otherwise.

The study found that nonprofit organizations have better ethics than other sectors but that seems to be fading fast.

The study found that more than half of nonprofit employees observed at least one type of misconduct. The level of ethics in nonprofits is now nearly as bad as it gets in business and government. More employees in nonprofits observe financial fraud than in business. In 2007, the percentage of employees in nonprofit organizations that observed alteration of financial records jumped to 8 per cent, significantly more than business (5 percent in 2007). More nonprofit employees (7 percent) than business employees (5 percent) feel that the standards espoused by their workplace always conflict with their personal values. Nonprofits are getting larger but the larger organizations are experiencing more misconduct.