Nonprofit Board Crisis

Nonprofit Board Diversity: Disabilities #NonprofitBoards

Nonprofit Boards have significantly failed to be inclusive and representative of those they serve.  But there is one population that is even more significantly under-representative according to a recent article by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and highlighted by Fast Company: persons with disabilities.  According to the article:        

        While 1 in 4 Americans has a disability, about 75% of nonprofit boards don’t have anyone with a disability on them. 

        Organizations who already had at least one board member or an employee with a disability on staff were reportedly nearly twice as likely to make an                 effort to recruit more people with disabilities. Even then, there’s a ways to go: Only 38% of those organizations were reportedly inclusive when recruiting.

 

I would additionally offer that in a recent national survey of board leaders (officers and committee chairs) being conducted by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management Governance Affinity Group, persons with disabilities was also cited as an extremely low if not even recognized criteria for recruitment.

The "so what"?  According to the article: "at least one-third of the RespectAbility survey respondents believe the lack of hiring within their groups is a result of internal bias among current leaders. It may be unintentional, but people without disabilities can obviously not think about making that an extension of formal diversity hiring practices" in addition to a number lapses like even considering disabilities on the website or at events.

Not unique to persons with disabilities, isn't this pretty much the case for all lapses in addressing diversity by nonprofit boards?

 

 

 

Nonprofit Board President Resigns #NonprofitBoards

The president of the board of the five million (more or less) strong National Rifle Association, Oliver North (yes, the Iran-Contra guy - he certainly understands the gun business) has resigned pretty much over a dispute with the executive director about how finances are being run although I would imagine if it came to this and it was the president who had to go, this is a much bigger problem than anyone really knows unless PERHAPS you happen to be one of the NRA's 75, yes, 7 and 5, board members.  Uh, and yea,  I will go on record saying 75 is a way too many folks in the fiduciary seat to even have a manageable board meeting but clearly EVERYONE's voice must be heard, eventually, at the board table of the NRA.  I say eventually because imagine how long it must take for everyone to have a say or say anything at a board meeting.  My guess, the board is run by some smaller executive board which then means that the 75 are not really the board but this is certainly a topic for other days, or is it?

I work on board/exec conflicts all the time and will say that it is a rarer thing that it is the board who goes versus the exec.  After all, isn't the "owner" of the nonprofit the board or at least the members in the case of the NRA?  And, can't the board just say, you, the ED, you are fired?  One would think so in the normal course of doing business but the intrigue and behind-the-scenes efforts chronicled in a variety of articles suggests the NRA, or at least its CEO, does not do business in the normal way.  And, I would pose, that despite its girth, the board is really a weak body having transferred its authority to the exec and likely not even doing the basics like an annual performance review and establishment of annual goals from which such a review can be conducted.  I honestly don't have evidence either way but appearances speak loudly.  

The NRA can now serve as a case study for how to or not how to govern which in my mind then makes their general activities suspect.

If you would like to read more, check out this New York Times article.

Hawaii: What Goes On There Not Always Blissful #NonprofitBoards

Yes, Hawaii is a paradise.  I can say so from first hand experience.  But like everywhere in the world, people can change what should be blissful to less blissful.  And while the board of the Sand Island Treatment Center appears to be about making life in Hawaii somewhat blissful for residents who have lost their way, they appear to have made life super blissful for the founder/executive and at least one other board member, a former Miss Hawaii. And no, I'm not making this up.

The saga of Sand Island does indeed start out well with the recovery of an abandoned property and presumably success in the treatment and rehab business.  But the board is surely suspect under the Internal Revenue Intermediate Sanctions rule which says that execs in particular can't be compensated in excess and in this case, in excess of the Betty Ford Center where compensation for the Exec is around $600K for a $183 million institute while over at Sand Island, a $3+ million place, compensation is just over $500k.  See where I'm going?  And, an employee in addition to the exec sits on the board and is paid way disproportionately to the rest of the field.  

You can read the whole story here.

Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment and Retention Lessons #NonprofitBoards

No, volunteer firefighting is not the same as nonprofit board service: or is it?  The latest Governing Magazine had an article about the challenges throughout the country facing communities that rely on volunteer fire departments.  Apparently, the state of this industry is not good with recruitment and retention, particularly among younger folks, a significant problem.  At the end of the article, a look at what is being done to at least stabilize the situation was provided.  My takeaway: the similarities to recruitment and retention of nonprofit board members is not all that different from those of firefighters.  So, while all the ideas may not work (a retirement payment for instance particularly given term limits), there are other ideas, particularly around recruitment, that I believe have real merit.  Here you go.

 

How can fire departments fill the gap?

A commission of fire and emergency service organizations in Pennsylvania recommended a few solutions for the state: better online marketing, increased incentives, and more funding for training and equipment. The boots, helmet and fire suit run as high as $4,000 -- some of which is often paid for by the volunteers themselves.

Montgomery County, Md., is proof that those solutions might work. The number of volunteer firefighters there has remained steady for a decade.

The county uses grants and state aid to cover volunteers' equipment and training costs, and offers a monthly retirement payout ranging from $250 to $370 to volunteers who serve for 25 years. The recruitment effort is also aided by a $6,500 state income tax credit for volunteer firefighters.

But these kinds of incentives are only part of the answer, says Eric Bernard, executive director of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association.

Good management of the volunteer experience is crucial, he says. The county has also focused on creating a welcoming environment for minorities and women. The volunteer trainer for the county’s basic orientation course, for example, is a woman of Guatemalan and French descent who speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Of the volunteers recruited in the last nine years, half are women and half are minorities. In the past, “it was young white males and older white males," says Bernard, "but we’re changing.”

Bernard, like Cash, is recruiting all the time -- when he goes to the supermarket, at lunch, in libraries, high schools, churches and synagogues.

“Every volunteer department is looking for the magic bullet, but there is no magic bullet,” he says. “It’s constant work. You can never stop.”

 

 

 

 

Nonprofit Board Overhaul #NonprofitBoards

When the going gets tough, the board may not want to be going but sometimes, their actions means they must go.  So goes the case in the University of Maryland Medical School where a number of board members were found to have violated conflict of interest principles and achieved personal and/or business gain to the detriment of their nonprofit.  The governor has stepped-in and required that:

"There cannot even be the appearance of impropriety from those connected with the hospital system, especially in positions of such importance," Hogan said.

The new law bars board members from getting contracts without a bidding process. It prohibits board members from leveraging their position on the board for personal gain, and board members must attest to any business relationship with the medical system. It requires an audit of contracting practices, and each board member will be required to submit an annual financial disclosure report. It scraps a rule requiring a certain number of voting board members to be General Assembly members.

 

The legislation also says all the remaining board members must step down and reapply for their positions, if they want to return. The governor will appoint voting members of the board, and the state's Senate would have to confirm them

The interesting thing about this situation: I can't understand how it at all happen.  Generally, conflict of interests/self-dealing is understood as not allowed and even violates IRS fiduciary obligations.  Isn't the next step for the Feds to get involved if they are not already?  And where exactly were board leaders?  For shame.

The Hour is the source of quoted material.

Nonprofit Board Recruitment #NonprofitBoards

Board recruitment has been identified as a serious challenge to nonprofit boards.  Boards that are clear about their needs are a step ahead of this challenge.  And, boards that reach-out into their community beyond expecting that the network of those currently sitting at the board table seek new members is another step ahead to this challenge.  So, the Shrewsbury Library, as evidenced by the following posting in Shrewsbury Wicked provides some optimism for the board expanding its membership.   The current board believes it knows who will be a good fit and what will be their job.  A great start!

 

SHREWSBURY — The Board of Library Trustees of the Shrewsbury Public Library is seeking qualified persons interested in serving on the nonprofit Shrewsbury Public Library Foundation Board of Trustees to fill four-year terms.

The Shrewsbury Public Library Foundation Board is a volunteer unpaid group of individuals whose mission is to develop and encourage the long-term health and growth of the Shrewsbury Public Library, by securing the financial resources necessary to ensure continued growth and improvement. Generally, the responsibilities of the members include engaging in activities which promote fundraising in the community, setting policies for the operation of the foundation, ensuring proper investment of the foundation’s assets and serving as an advocate and spokesperson for the Library Foundation.

Criteria for selection of board members will include individuals who have one or more of the following qualities: interested and enthusiastic about public libraries, knowledgeable about the Shrewsbury Public Library or willing to learn more, able to participate in the meetings of the board and its committees, skills in the areas of programming, fundraising, investing and financial management, public relations or advocacy, experience with other nonprofit boards and nonprofit groups and engagement in the community.

The board will meet four to five times per year and in special sessions when necessary. Those interested are asked to submit a letter of interest and qualifications to Clare O’Connor, chair of the Board of Library Trustees, 609 Main St., Shrewsbury, MA 01545 by May 13.

 

Self-Perpetuating Boards: A Solution #NonprofitBoards

I will concur with the following commentator that self-perpetuating boards really don't benefit a nonprofit or for that matter, the board members themselves and/or their constituents.  This system that just has folks re-elect themselves, often without term limits, leads to a non-productive board at the very minimum and you can guess at the very worse.  So what to do to make a change (sorry, not just one change, but many changes).  Here's what Matt Krauss has to say about this subject in the Caledonian Record.

 

Matt Krauss: Self-Perpetuating Nonprofit Boards Should Change

• BY MATT KRAUSS
 
• Apr 10, 2019
 

In 2018 Seven Days ran a series of articles regarding nonprofit organizations. They did a great service explaining to Vermonters how large the Vermont nonprofit sector has become, their CEO salaries, etc. Unfortunately I believe they may have missed an important story. They could have focused upon the large self-perpetuating nonprofit boards that hire and oversee the CEO’s, set their salaries, determine the nonprofits policies, and make the real decisions.

Now before anyone starts lambasting me let’s agree board members are hard working, dedicated, and toil in obscurity for no remuneration. And I am not disparaging the vital services these nonprofits provide Vermonters. However, no matter how noble the cause, no matter how vital the need, the citizens of Vermont deserve more understanding of and involvement in the larger self-perpetuating boards and the way they are chosen should change. And, let’s start by saying a large nonprofit is defined by $1,250,000 or more in revenue.

Getting named to a large nonprofit self-perpetuating board is a bit of an enigma to the public.These self-perpetuating nonprofit boards are guided by bylaws you can’t find on their website (you have to call to get them). They are advised by nominating committees whose members aren’t identified, who recruit new members by means and at locations known only to themselves, screened by criteria never shown to the public, and then the new members are announced through a press release as if they just appeared from behind a magicians cape.

These large nonprofits are where you go to get health care, renewable energy services, the news you read, colleges you attend, mental health services, apply for grants, etc. Is it important who sits on these self-perpetuating boards and how much the public is involved? You bet it does!

Open up the recruiting process and there is a wealth of ideas, talent, and energy just waiting for the right nonprofit CEO or Board Chair with vision and courage to reach out and grasp it. Here are five modest first steps to open the process up:

1. On your website encourage those who volunteer, support, contribute, and are in your service area to apply for the board. Not asking your most ardent supporters to apply sends a horrible message.

2. A much more open display of the bylaws that outline how the organization regulates itself. Any large nonprofit organization that doesn’t post (or link to) their bylaws on their website shouldn’t get your charitable donation, period.

3. Your board recruiting paradigm should now be “crowdsourcing for board members”. Expand the pool from which you recruit new members from the present board members friends, acquaintances, and “recommends”. Expand the recruiting sources and publicly list the organizations that will receive recruitment notices for new board members.

4. Work to create new ways to include the public in your board activities. Begin by asking for ideas on your website. The creation of temporary committees composed of both board members and qualified public members is an excellent place to start.

5. See the board and its activities from the public’s perspective, not yours. Consider adopting a formal plan to educate, inform, and enlighten the public about the board.

What will these newly “democratized” nonprofit organizations gain?

1. More qualified board applicants to chose from in a tough recruiting environment. They will be a more diverse group with vastly different backgrounds and experiences.

2. A more open, transparent, and inclusive process helps the public, your customers, and your fund raising base understand board activities that had been invisible and unknown to them in the past.

3. This new openness and understanding will build a reservoir of goodwill and empathy when tough times and tough decisions come to a nonprofit as sometimes happens like at Springfield Hospital or Southern Vermont College.

4. Those not chosen for the board could become an active pool of highly qualified folks ready to step up if needed. And innovative new ways can be found to harness their energies and talents.

5. And most importantly for nonprofits this new openness may create new ways to raise funds.

I’m asking the most influential and powerful self-perpetuating nonprofit boards in Vermont to open up the process. It’s long overdue and something Vermonters will appreciate, support, and reward. Please consider this commentary an open offer to speak with your board and explain these ideas.

Matt Krauss, of Stowe, is a happily retired state employee and a former Vermont legislator.

Nonprofit Board Stages of Development #NonprofitBoards

In my graduate work many, many years ago I deduced that our (we consultants) did not quite grasp that one-formula for all boards was in error.  This one-formula theory posited that all boards have x duties and responsibilities and should do "this" and shouldn't do "that".  The following article re-emphasizes that my theory and corresponding solution has merit.  My theory: nonprofit boards are successful in varying stages of development that often correspond to, but not necessarily, varying stages of a nonprofit's growth and resources.  I posed there to be 4 stages that paralleled life stages: infancy, juvenile, adolescence, and, maturity.  This simple construct most importantly suggests that in the infancy stage board members pay very little attention to the traditional fiduciary duties while paying significant attention to getting and keeping the doors open and often times, actually providing service.  The mature stage on the other hand has members focused singularly on the fiduciary duties fulfilling these through policy, planning and evaluation and in many cases, as volunteers but surrogate owners, raising funds in a variety of ways.

My theory has pretty much held-up and the following Jackson Hole News and Guide article does a fine job offering samples of how this works.

 

Boards pool knowledge for nonprofits

Jackson’s volunteers bring diverse backgrounds to the boardroom table.

• By Julie Kukral

 

 

 

Jason Snider is president of the Jackson Hole Land Trust board. He served on the board for seven years before taking the lead role.

 

 

From eliminating food waste to offering arts education to providing health care, nonprofits help make Jackson function.

“We don’t have a big city to rely on here,” Community Foundation of Jackson Hole President Katharine Conover said. “It does mean that [nonprofits] are filling more needs here, but that’s because those needs don’t get met elsewhere.”

While nonprofits fill the needs of the community, volunteers log thousands of hours annually keeping the organizations ticking. Nonprofit boards come in different shapes and sizes — every 501(c)(3) is required by state statute to have at least three board members — but every board seat comes with responsibility.

 

“The board is responsible for not only making sure that you’re meeting your mission fiscally responsibly, but that you’re doing what the community wants you to be doing,” Conover said. “The classic thought is to have your board be comprised of wealth, wisdom and work.”

From nothing to something

Some of those W’s are more important than others at different times in an organization’s evolution. Take the Jackson Hole Lacrosse Club, which was founded in 2012 by a group of a half-dozen parents, including attorney Brenda Wylie.

“I’m from Maryland, and I wanted my daughter to have the same opportunities that I had,” she said. (If you didn’t know, Maryland takes lacrosse very seriously.)

Though not low on good intention, the club’s founders had little experience launching or running a youth sports program. From filling out insurance paperwork to ordering uniforms, the early board members were responsible for crossing every T and dotting every I. It was, simply put, a lot of work.

The club, now in its seventh year, has grown to include 300-some kids in its programming. Now that the organization is run by staff, board members can be less hands-on in the club’s regular operations, a common transition as an organization stabilizes.

Wylie has stepped down from the Jackson Hole Lacrosse Club board, but she holds a seat on two others: the Center for the Arts board and the Board of Law Examiners for the Wyoming State Bar.

Though she enjoys art on a spectator basis, Wylie confessed, “I’m a lawyer; I know nothing about the arts.”

That is OK. In fact, it can be encouraged. Healthy boards pool wisdom from diverse backgrounds, Conover said.

Under the leadership of Center for the Arts board President Don Opatrny, Wylie played an active role in negotiating the Center’s 99-year lease with town and county attorneys. When the Center was rebranding, however, Wylie was less crucial to the decision-making process and defaulted to the marketing and PR gurus in the room. Nonetheless, she was able to learn a lot from the process.

“But as I was sitting there I learned from it,” she said. “So that’s the benefit: I learned a lot.”

Serving on several boards in addition to working full time has her missing more family dinners than she’d like. But it offers a chance to pass on expertise, give back, as well as open doors for herself professionally. Just recently she had dinner with Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Kari Gray.

“I would never be able to have dinner with a Wyoming Supreme Court justice if I wasn’t on the Law Examiners Board,” Wylie said.

Keeping on course

Twenty-three people make up the Jackson Hole Land Trust’s board of directors.

Among the nearly two dozen volunteers are experts in legal matters, design and city planning, banking and capital management. Some members are people who have experience on boards of other successful organizations, a skill set that can’t be ignored, board President Jason Snider said.

Snider was tapped for the experience he has at his “day job” as a co-founder of Agrostis Inc., a landscape architecture and land planning firm in Teton County.

 

“I was really fascinated in what [the Land Trust] was doing and to see how it worked from the other side of things,” Snider said. “As somebody that is still working with landowners with conservation easements, it’s been helpful to understand how things are working on a staff side of things.”

Snider served on the Land Trust board for seven years before taking the role of president this year.

Being president is a much larger commitment because he is involved with meeting with and coordinating each committee. Though he gets to give back to a conservation-minded nonprofit, he, in return, gets invaluable information he can use professionally. And though it’s a commitment, the board is efficient and effective in its work, he said.

“It’s such a high-functioning organization,” he said. “There’s a bunch of interesting, smart people to think of creative solutions to problems, and I get to meet and get to know people in the community that I may not have the ordinary chance to do so.”

Setting an example

The spirit of service can be addicting. Often when you find people serving on one board you find they are also serving on others.

Jennifer Sparks works as a senior portfolio manager and partner at Friess Associates. By night — or, rather, by other parts of day — she also serves on the boards of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, the Rendezvous Lands Conservancy and the Friends of Bridger-Teton Avalanche Center. She has also carved out time to volunteer with Teton County Search and Rescue since 1998 and recently joined the board of the Teton County Search and Rescue Foundation.

Sparks’ came-to-Jackson story is similar to many: she moved to Jackson a year out of college and grew roots. She loves the access to nature and recreational opportunities, but she also has a fondness for the community’s spirit of volunteerism and philanthropy. It’s something that seems to be rubbing off on her daughter, who “oftentimes will tag along” to volunteer events.

“I think my daughter seeing me volunteer my time has made her understand the importance of giving back to your community,” she said.

Addicting — and apparently contagious.

 

Contact Julie Kukral via 732-7076 or [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

 

45 Years as Nonprofit Board Member #NonprofitBoards

Yup: 45 years!  I couldn't believe it until I read the whole article and am sort-of still very impressed but also thinking: wow, would I want to sit on a nonprofit board for this long AND for all the organization MIGHT have gained, what did it not gain during this period?  Clearly there are no term limits unless they made an exception to their rules.  And clearly they must have found value or why keep someone for so long.  So, really, are term limits all they are cracked-up to be?  Well, experience says yes but maybe there is a time for exceptions as long as everyone is intentional and understands the implications.  And, yes, there are implications.  One can't guess who else didn't get a seat.  One can't guess whether or not there was necessary changes that might have been made had there been others in the seat.  And one can't guess what might have happened in terms of policy, planning, priorities and, well, you know.  45 years is a very long time.  I'm just saying.  From USA Today (lohud):

 

 

John Murphy: A half-century championing Rocklanders with developmental disabilities

Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal NewsPublished 6:00 a.m. ET April 8, 2019 | Updated 6:52 a.m. ET April 8, 2019

 

 

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John Murphy, an ex-Marine and former Rockland County legislator, served on the front lines in the battle for inclusion. He's seen the tension ebb over group homes in suburban neighborhoods and support grow for fostering independence for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.

After serving 45 years on the board of Camp Venture — 44 of them in leadership positions — Murphy is being honored by Venture Foundation, which supports the nonprofit Camp Venture's lifespan services for people with developmental disabilities. The April 13 fundraiser is billed as a tribute to John Murphy's lifetime of community service.

That's hardly hyperbole — Murphy has been involved for nearly half a century in "umpteen" organizations and government entities that support people in need, including veterans and people on the intellectual and developmental disabilities spectrum.

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John Murphy championed independence for people with developmental disabilities and helped growing Rockland find room for group homes. Murphy was photographed at the Pond of the 200,000 in Sparkill on April 4, 2019, which is a memorial to the pond where the ashes of developmentally disabled people killed by the Nazis were dumped at Auschwitz. (Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News)

 

When asked if, at age 84, Murphy was bowing out of community service, Murphy laughed heartily. 

The Pearl River resident is still plenty busy with several long-term projects, and has plans to expand housing for homeless veterans. He's trying to make more music programs available in Rockland for people with special needs. And, of course, he's still supporting  organizations that serve those who, as he says, "suffer with broken bodies, brains and minds."

Bill Schule, CEO and executive director of Venture Foundation, said it was important to honor Murphy for all his charitable work "before time runs out."

Murphy ignores the age reference and ruffles a bit at summing up his advocacy as simply charity. "It's not a charity," Murphy said. "It's a civil right." 

JPat Brosnan lives at the Kathy Lukens Independent Living Center apartments in Sparkill. Now 58, he has known Murphy since he was 10, which is when his parents first became involved in Camp Venture. The two banter and tease whenever they see each other. "He's done a lot for the agency," Brosnan said on Thursday.

Group home era

"I'm a man who is in love with Rockland," Murphy said. He and his wife, Eileen, moved up from the Bronx in 1961, part of that post-Tappan Zee Bridge migration that brought tens of thousands of new residents within five years of the bridge's 1955 opening and transformed farmland into suburban sprawl.

But an unexpected culture clash was brewing.

As the county's population swelled, a national deinstitutionalization movement took hold.

Rockland, the state's smallest geographical county outside New York City, was home to Rockland Psychiatric Center in Orangeburg, which housed up to 9,500 patients and Letchworth Village in Haverstraw, which was home to about 4,500 children and adults with disabilities. There were also 11 orphanages in the county, mostly run by nuns.

"It was such a small county with so any human-care enterprises," Murphy said during an interview Wednesday at Venture. "We had two of the largest state institutions in the nation." 

Murphy said nuns he knew from the Bronx beseeched him to get involved. "They recruited me, essentially," Murphy said. "I just got out of the Marine Corps ... they needed a public face."

John Murphy championed independence for people with developmental disabilities and helped growing Rockland find room for group homes. Murphy was photographed at the Pond of the 200,000 in Sparkill on April 4, 2019, which is a memorial to the pond where the ashes of developmentally disabled people killed by the Nazis were dumped at Auschwitz. (Photo: Carucha L. Meuse/The Journal News)

 

He quelled concerns of residents worried about their safety and property values as group homes sought a place in the suburban landscape. It wasn't easy and it could get ugly. 

Championing these causes soon became Murphy's passion, his mission, and his legacy. "I remain jubilant about the changes brought about by a once uninformed government and many wonderful nonprofit groups."

Record of volunteerism  

Murphy's resumé makes clear that he's nowhere near thinking about full retirement.

He serves as an unpaid volunteer for the surrogate decision-making committee of the New York State Justice Center For the Protection of People with Special Needs, which investigates reports of abuse. Murphy is also chairman of the Rockland Psychiatric Center Board of Visitors. Murphy also co-founded the Rockland Autism Symposium. 

He is co-founder and president of Rockland Homes For Heroes, which has constructed supportive apartments and is planning more at the former Camp Shanks, a World War II troop embarkation point to the European Theatre during World War II. 

He is co-founder of the Petition For Paula, which has fought against parole for the two killers of Paula Bohovesky, who was killed in 1980 at the age of 16. Murphy recalled the October morning he was walking to the Pearl River train station and came upon the yellow police tape. A police officer told him what happened and who it was. Murphy said he turned around and went back home so he could hug his daughter, who was the same age as Paula. 

Murphy has served on nearly a dozen other nonprofit boards. 

It's all been worth it, he said. "I see developmentally disabled and mentally ill adults who are very well cared for by nonprofit agencies and are living much longer and healthier lives."

Feeble Board of Directors #NonprofitBoards

The following commentary found in the Standard-Examiner calls nonprofit boards of directors who fail to know about and address internal "issues", "feeble".  Indeed, the examples of very recent failed boards is pretty serious stuff about fairly large nonprofits.  But the bigger and age old question is what is precise cause and effect by/of boards on their nonprofits?  If one has a weak board, does a nonprofit inherently fail - is there a direct cause and effect?  And, can weaknesses, based on inexperience and lack of knowledge ( a very common characteristic) serve as a better explanation?   Or are these too just excuses for pretty big failures?  Don't boards have a responsibility to learn how to do their job which in most cases in my observation is a failure to monitor (another version of accountability?  

The author raises good points that should serve as fodder for every nonprofit board to consider during a fiduciary conversation.

 

Commentary: The charity world’s accountability problem

• By Will Coggin
 
• Apr 6, 2019

Nonprofit employees are willing to make sacrifices, such as accepting salaries below what’s available in the private sector, so that they can work towards a noble cause. But recently many have faced a barrier they shouldn’t: hostile workplaces enabled by feeble boards of directors who are accountable to essentially no one.

In the most recent scandal, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization founded to fight bigotry, has been rocked by allegations of racism and sexism within the nonprofit. The avalanche of allegations began with the resignation letter of Meridith Horton, a senior attorney who cited unfair treatment of women and people of color within the organization. As the resignation letter became public, more and more people found courage and voiced their personal experiences of sexual harassment and racism within the organization.

 

It wasn’t just the public that was shocked. Somehow SPLC’s board chair found it to be “eye opening” when the news broke that Morris Dees, SPLC’s founder, had fostered a culture the organization had so proudly fought against. Where has the board been all this time?

In fact, issues have persisted for decades in the SPLC world. In 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser ran an eight-part series on the organization’s racial woes. Focusing on the trend of African Americans employed in lower level positions with little representation in managerial roles. The series’ analysis of why this occurred pointed to the board’s history of being composed of friends and associates of Dees--people who would put Dees over the charity and its mission.

Unaccountable and untrustworthy charity boards have become a focal point in the #metoo era. The Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) board originally gave a vote of confidence to its CEO Wayne Pacelle after he had been accused of sexual harassment by several women at the not-for-profit. The board even voted to end an internal investigation into him after some of the allegations became public. It wasn’t until staff and donors protested that Pacelle resigned.

The charity leadership’s behavior since has been an exercise in obfuscation and opacity. It took a month for the charity to even release a statement of contrition. Then the leadership announced a vague “reconciliation process.” After a year, HSUS announced the process was over — with little details made public.

Consider that the same board members who voted to keep the CEO were overseeing the “reconciliation” and it begins to make sense. The process seems little more than a way to ward off lawsuits and bad PR — not to be transparent and accountable to donors and the public.

The Wounded Warrior Project is an example of some positive steps to look for. The charity was the subject of outrage after it emerged that it was wasting millions on conferences and five-star resorts — $26 million in 2014, to be exact.

The board fired the CEO and another top executive, but that in and by itself isn’t good enough. After all, board members have a fiscal responsibility and duty to review budgets and know, or should know, how donor money is spent. Fortunately, records show the majority of the board members from 2014 are no longer at the charity.

 

Donors should still be careful, however, and review ratings from reputable charity evaluators to see if a charity has truly reformed its spending practices.

That’s especially vital because many bad charities (and their boards) are operating today with a business-as-usual mentality. The respected evaluator CharityWatch gives over 40 percent of the cancer and veterans charities it rates a “D” or “F” grade. This is a reflection of the failure of leadership and their duties to donors.

Not-for-profits belong to no one and everyone. Ownership of a public charity is the general public — you and me. State Attorneys General have authority and oversight over charities, but sadly they are often reactive, not proactive.

So what’s a donor to do? In the modern day, where new allegations of harassment or wrongdoing at nonprofits occur at a higher frequency, it has become important now more than ever to pay closer attention. Do your research on charity evaluators and employee review sites.

Any charity with a harassment or other scandal should be treated with a “one strike” policy. If a group hasn’t been managed properly, there are plenty of other charities in a field that are more deserving.

The general public can begin the necessary change and hold leadership accountable with donations. Do not follow the Pied Piper down the wrong path, funding inequities and waiting for the authorities to act. Be the instrument of change, take charge and donate to charities whose leadership is held to a higher standard we are all be striving for. Your donation money talks!