Each student will be assigned to participate in a group of 2-3 students that is then assigned a charitable sector organization (nonprofit or foundation) with specified characteristics. Each group will respond to weekly prompts based on the specific organizational persona assigned to their group, drawing on the readings due that week, the Independent Sector Principles, other applicable principles, and applying the analytical framework that will have been discussed in class.
As a group, submit one response to the weekly prompt by writing approximately 300 words from the perspective of the organizational persona that you have been assigned. In your response, include the names of group members and the group’s organizational persona. Make sure that you refer to the week’s assigned readings and the relevant IS Principles and other principles, and use the analytical framework, as appropriate.
Organizational persona: Operating Foundation
Prompt: You are the executive director of a nonprofit, “Puzzle Piece”, that has a mission to help adults who self-identify as having autism integrate into the workplace and participate in social organizations that help keep these adults self supporting and functional in daily life. One of your national board members has introduced you to an independent fundraising professional who says that for a nominal fundraising contract, she has a donor looking for a worthy recipient whose mission revolves around autism. The potential donor is a founder of an alternative currency competing with BitCoin. The donor has stated that he will donate up to $5 million up front, with equity interest in his innovative currency platform annually thereafter, to an autism organization that will run a series of public service announcements about available autism resources, at least one of which must feature the donor’s adult child.
As executive director, how do you proceed with this introduction that has been made? How do you handle the board member? Potential donor? Your own in-house fundraising staff? Your marketing team? Are there identifiable conflicts of interest, and if so, how do you proceed?
After the posting deadline but prior to class, review responses that have been posted by other groups and consider if, how, and why the responses differ. Are the answers dependent on the kind of organization (e.g. does a foundation have a different response from a nonprofit, or a large organization from a small one?), or is the response to the prompt the same regardless of the type of organization responding?
The overall purpose of the Weekly Prompts is to apply what you are learning to real or hypothetical ethical dilemmas. Specifically, the Weekly Prompt assignments will enable you: (a) to practice applying the IS Principles, the assigned readings, and to use the Analytical Framework to address an ethical dilemma, (b) to practice ‘issue spotting’ or recognizing a situation to be an ethical dilemma, and (c) to consider how different types of charities might respond to the same ethical dilemma.
Grobman, Gary. (2018) Ethics in Nonprofit Organizations, Theory and Practice, 3rd edition, Ch. 3, pgs. 71-77 and review Ch. 6, pgs. 103-106; Case 1, pgs. 129-133; Case 4, pgs. 53-159.
Independent Sector, Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice (ISP), 2015. https://independentsector.org/programs/principles-for-good-governance-and-ethical-practice/ (Links to an external site.)
Pettey, Nonprofit Fundraising Strategy [NPFRS], 2013, Ch. 5 (Tainted Money)
Rinella, J., K. F. Clune and T. Blasdel. 2019. “Controversial ‘Conversations’: Analyzing a Museum Director’s Strategic Alternatives When a Famous Donor Becomes Tainted.” Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership 9(1): 85-106
Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of Professional Practice, Association of Fundraising Professionals, https://afpglobal.org/ethicsmain/code-ethical-standards (Links to an external site.)
Donor Bill of Rights, Association of Fundraising Professionals, https://afpglobal.org/donor-bill-rights (Links to an external site.)
“Donor Trust Report 2020: The Pandemic and a Three-Year Retrospective,” BBB WGA, November 2020. https://www.give.org/docs/default-source/donor-trust-library/2020-donor-trust-report.pdf (Links to an external site.)
“How a 1905 debate about ‘tainted’ Rockefeller money is a reminder of ethical dilemmas today,” David Mislin, The Conversation, October 2, 2019. https://theconversation.com/how-a-1905-debate-about-tainted-rockefeller-money-is-a-reminder-of-ethical-dilemmas-today-124068 (Links to an external site.)
“How to Handle Gifts from ‘Tainted’ Donors,” Bartlett, et al., WealthManagement.com, October 8, 2019. https://www.wealthmanagement.com/philanthropy/how-handle-gifts-tainted-donors (Links to an external site.)
“Black Donor Silence Is a Call to Action – Not a Retreat,” Tyrone McKinley Freeman, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 21, 2020. Link in Course Files.
“A dodgy deal helped make him a billionaire. It worked, until now,” Peter Whoriskey, Yeganeh Torbati and Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post, November 13, 2020. Link in Course Files.
(Links to an external site.)“Carnegie Hall Stands By Its Chairman, Despite Tax Violations,” Robin Pogrebin, NYT, December 9, 2020. Link in Course Files.
