Fund Raisers Must Mirror
Their Charity’s Values
relation) did in the fund-raising
arena, and that kind of punishment will happen more frequently to organization leaders,
Mr. Peregrine says.
Courts and lawmakers increasingly fault corporate heads
for the mistakes of subordinates,
even when they act without the
CEO’s knowledge, he says, so
the same rule will probably apply in the nonprofit world.
“We are in a finger-pointing
climate,” Mr. Peregrine says.
“There is a certain degree of
unfairness, but the government
feels that there is a deterrent
“People should be looking at this
throughout the entire nonprofi t sector,”
says Doug Eichten, a consultant.
pander to a donor’s point of view
in hopes it will lead to a gift.”
Uphold the organization’s
values. The comments Mr.
Schiller made that NPR would
be better off in the long run
without federal funds, though
he was careful to say the money
is critical for local stations, can
be construed as going against
NPR’s public stance that the
funds are vital.
Some of NPR’s 268 member
organizations rely on federal
aid for half or more of their annual budgets; losing that money
could be a death blow for some.
“The big lesson is that when
you represent an organization,
you have to be aligned with its
mission, and the views he expressed were not part of NPR,”
says a senior fund raiser who
asked to remain anonymous because of his previous experience
raising money for public broadcasting. “You have to represent
the organization, and you cannot go off the reservation.”
Plan for the worst. As lawmakers and public-policy experts debate how to trim the
federal deficit, including proposals to reduce or eliminate the
charitable deduction and limit
which organizations qualify for
tax exemption, “every charity
should be concerned about their
revenue model,” says Michael
W. Peregrine, a Chicago lawyer
who represents several large
nonprofit organizations.
“I’ve asked my clients, What
if they lose the charitable deduction? What if they lose their
tax exemption?” Mr. Peregrine
says. “The board has to have a
Plan B and C.”
Help CEO’s understand
their liability. Vivian Schiller lost her job as NPR’s CEO
for something Mr. Schiller (no
Continued from Page 9
The NPR fund raiser at the scandal’s
center may fi nd his career prospects have
dimmed, says Steven Ast, a recruiter.
“We have to be
ready to act like our
corporate peers because we might not
survive otherwise.”
effect by holding executives ac-
countable.”
In this context, he says, “we
have to be ready in the nonprof-
it sector to act like our corpo-
rate peers because we might not
survive otherwise.”
On the other hand, while
CEO’s may be held accountable,
nonprofits should not rush too
quickly to judgment, says Di-
ana Aviv, president of Indepen-
dent Sector, a coalition of chari-
ties and foundations.
“America has long prided itself on our belief that our fellow
members of society are innocent
until proven guilty,” she says.
“We have a broad obligation to
withhold judgment until all the
facts are considered. It is a matter of good governance, and it is
the right thing to do.”
Suzanne Perry contributed to
this article.
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called the U.S. Attorney Gener-
al’s office as soon as it learned of
the suspicious visits, Mr. Schear
said, explaining that a visitor
was either “committing federal
crimes or he’s involved in a hoax
and it’s got to be investigated.”
Some groups that are now in
Republican cross hairs are re-
minding their colleagues to be
scrupulous about following the
rules.
For example, Save Service is a
coalition of organizations that is
trying to preserve federal money for AmeriCorps and other
national-service programs at a
time when the House has voted
to end all support.
After the NPR videos
emerged, the coalition sent a
message to its supporters reminding them that national-ser-
Continued from Page 10
vice programs are nonpartisan,
that they should not express
their personal political views,
and that nonprofits cannot use
federal money that they get for
national-service programs for
advocacy.
AnnMaura Connolly—an executive at City Year, the youth
corps, who is Save Service’s
campaign manager—says national-service advocates often
spread that message. But the
NPR incident offered a fresh opportunity.
“Any occasion that raises this
on people’s radar screens,” Ms.
Connolly says, “we want to remind people that it’s important
to engage in the process in appropriate ways.”
Suzanne Sataline contributed
to this article.
