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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Ethics Q & A Articles : Article |
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Ethics Q & A
September 25, 2006
By Jane Garthson, Mills Garthson & Associates
The dilemma:
I see bad people get away with stuff all the time. Those they report to look the other way, or are equally bad, or seem so gullible. Does anything bad ever happen to nonprofit staff or volunteers who behave unethically?Jane's Response:
Aesop wrote his fables as tales to teach morality. Old Western movies always showed the good guys winning, and the white hats made them easy to identify. We would like our world to be like that but it's not.
However, the newspapers these days often show corporate leaders being sentenced to jail time, or having their assets taken away. We see politicians forced to resign, and crown agency heads fired. While many get away with almost anything, at least some get caught and punished. It is the same as speeding - the police will not catch everyone, but the fact that they catch some is a deterrent.
So perhaps you are asking because you rarely if ever see nonprofit leaders in handcuffs.
Most nonprofit crimes are white-collar crimes. It can take a great deal of expensive forensic work to track what really happened to stolen money, more than the total budget of many nonprofits. And many charities feel their donors will never give again if they hear that their donations for local services ended up in South America. Besides, the board often looks bad for taking three years to realize what the staff knew in three months.
Far too often, even actual crimes that are detected are not reported to the police. The individual gets asked to leave and goes off to be treasurer or CFO of some other unsuspecting charity.
As well, the overworked leadership volunteers and senior staff of struggling nonprofits may have little energy for noticing the disappearing supplies or the misuse of an organizational vehicle. Staff or volunteers who do notice need to come forward - see my July 2006 article on whistle-blowing.
As you mention, sometimes the bosses are just as bad. In an environment where everyone pads their expense account, what can an ethical person do? Well, you can still be ethical in your own expense account, and you might find a chance to chat with the treasurer or the accountant. The auditor might even notice a pattern of fraud because your honest claims differ.
At least the financial misdeeds can be identified. Much of what we deem unethical is poor treatment of people, and unless a human rights code or harassment policy is being violated, people in authority may pay little attention. Over time, it should be obvious from high turnover of staff and volunteers if someone is creating a poisonous work environment. Often the best way to catch such behaviour is to seek input from peers and subordinates when conducing performance reviews. Then the bullying or other mistreatment of people can be reflected in salary decisions and consideration of progressive discipline.
And I really do hear of some people being disciplined, including losing their job, for unethical behaviour such as discrimination against women or staff of a different sexual orientation. Even some volunteers are asked to leave because of unethical behaviour. Really. But it is often kept very quiet, with fake reasons given, so you might not know. That might be because of friendship, or to reduce the chance of a lawsuit, or to protect the identify of someone who was sexually harassed. Of course, their punishment does not create a deterrent for others.
The increasing emphasis on accountability by grantmakers is helping, I think, catch organizations that really misuse funds, even though the way some grantmakers do it causes undue workload on the good organizations. We need simpler reporting, and a recognition that tracking costs money, but I am glad to find that they sometimes catch people who take monies intended for community housing and go on cruises instead.
I think it is getting harder to fudge when funds are misused. I know some people keep double books, but they may eventually be caught in a lie. I have no idea how they keep their lies straight anyway. I could not!
Is the deterrent enough? For those who do not care about their reputation or their future, not at all. We need the wrong-doers up in front of judges. If your organization identifies such a person, get legal advice. But the default action should be to go public. Go to the police. Tell your community that you not only had good enough systems in place to catch the problem (however belatedly), but also that you have improved the systems enough to keep the same problems from reoccurring. Rebuild trust with your supporters through honesty and taking responsibility.
For those who do care about their reputation, then having unethical acts made pubic can be quite a deterrent. Stories travel, and they may have trouble getting another job, another board position or another position of trust of any kind. Their children may be taunted at school. Their family may be disgusted with them.
And if their bad actions are never made public? We can only hope that a conscience awakens some day and they never sleep soundly again until they make retribution. Perhaps bad karma will follow them into the next life, or their actions will be punished in some kind of afterlife. We cannot know.
We can only know that WE must continue to act ethically so we can sleep at night, and not live in fear of being caught. Remember that acting ethically includes helping to expose the wrongdoers, so more do get the punishment they deserve.
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Because nonprofit organizations are formed to do good does not mean they always are good in their own practices. Send us your ethical questions dealing with volunteers, staff, clients, donors, funders, sponsors, and more. Please identify yourself and your organization so we know the questions come from within the sector. No identifying information will appear in this column.
To submit a dilemma for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact help@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.
Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.
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