THE CHRONICLE OF
PHIL A NTHROPY®
The Newspaper of the Nonprofit World
Volume XXIII, No. 9 • March 24, 2011 • $5
NPR’s Scandal Serves
as Cautionary Tale
for Fund Raisers
By Holly Hall
THE behind-the-scenes efforts fund raisers make to woo big donors got an unwelcome place in the public spotlight this month when the top fund
raiser at NPR was secretly videotaped at a lunch at
which a $5-million gift was offered. Ronald J. Schiller,
who was the broadcasting station’s senior vice president for development, left NPR for good a few hours
after a tape was released showing him making disparaging remarks about members of the Republican
Party to a Muslim group that was offering the gift but
turned out to be a fake.
Mr. Schiller declined to talk to The Chronicle on the
record, but fund raisers, chief executives, and nonprofit experts across the United States say his experience
illustrates a harsh new reality.
A bad economy that has made seeking money more
competitive than ever, a gaping deficit that has put
government aid at risk for many charities, and the
shrill and divided state of political discourse means
fund raisers can expect more challenges like the one
Mr. Schiller faced.
“Part of me thinks, Poor guy, he got set up,” says
Paul C. Pribbenow, president of Augsburg College, in
Minneapolis, who also chairs the Association of Fund-raising Professionals’ ethics committee.
“On the other hand,” he says, “the political and economic climate has led to stress, anxiety, and fearfulness playing a bigger role in institutions and their
An undercover sting at NPR
shakes up the network
and the nonprofit world
A SPeciAl RePoRt
fund raising. We are put in situations where people’s
political views are playing a bigger role. People are in
a ‘gotcha’ mode.”
“What happened at NPR is a sign of the times,” says
June Bradham, a Charleston, S.C., fund-raising con-
sultant. “All sources of government support are being
cut. It just depends on whose ox is getting gored this
week.”
Doug Eichten, president of DEI, a nonprofit fund-
Continued on Page 9
Charities Wonder
Who’s Next After
Secret-Video Episode
By Suzanne Perry
THE VIDEO STING OPERATION that embarrassed NPR this month is just the latest in a series of efforts by conservative activists to discredit
nonprofit groups by covertly recording employees who
appear to be acting improperly.
The takedown of NPR, which led to the resignations
of its chief executive and top fund raiser, has left many
in the nonprofit world wondering who might be next,
how to ensure that their employees always act completely above board, and, in some cases, how to fight
back.
“We need to recognize that these are not one-off attacks but instead connected events that require a collective and connected response,” says Gara LaMarche,
president of Atlantic Philanthropies, a grant maker
that donates money to liberal causes.
Nonprofits ‘Very Nervous’
The covert videos have so far involved groups that
have long drawn hostility from the political right—
NPR, Planned Parenthood, and Acorn, the now-defunct community-organizing group. That worries
some nonprofit advocates who are trying to adapt to
an increasingly polarized political climate in Washington.
Republicans who took over the House in January,
buoyed by an influx of small-government Tea Party
Continued on Page 10
For Fund Raisers, the Job Market’s Warming Up—but It’s Not Hot Yet
By Raymund Flandez
JOB OPPORTUNITIES for fund raisers are finally open- ing up as more and more nonprofits get ready to jump into big campaigns that were stalled by the
bad economy.
Many recruiters say that it’s a much better hiring
environment now than it was in the past two years,
when organizations not only stopped adding positions
but also laid off fund raisers or left open positions that
had been vacant.
“It’s a good time to be a candidate,” says Jill Las-
man, senior vice president of Lois L. Lindauer Search-
es, a 14-year-old Boston company that recruits fund
raisers for colleges, hospitals, and other nonprofits.
“We are busier than we’ve ever been in our entire his-
tory. Things have really turned around.”
The search firm is doing close to 40 executive-level
searches this year, compared with fewer than 30 last
year.
Among other signs that jobs are more plentiful:
n The Association of Fundraising Professionals
says job postings have nearly doubled since this time
last year.
n The Council for Advancement and Support of
Education says job postings from November through
February more than doubled from the same period
two years ago. About 80 to 90 percent of those recent
job postings are fund-raising related.
COURTESY OF FULLER CRAF T MUSEUM
Fuller Craft Museum’s leader, Wyona Lynch-
McWhite, just hired a chief fund raiser after
her group had gone 18 months without one.
Passionate Support
n Smart management of volunteer
fund raisers, like these people
selling refreshments to benefit
a Florida hospital, can pay big
dividends for charities. Learn
more in The Chronicle’s 2011
Guide to Fund-Raising Services.
Page F- 2
Policing Social Media
n Tighter regulations of online
social networks may be on the
horizon in some states to protect
donors from scams. Page 15
