Flying Books and Wrist Slaps
Certain professions bring greater condemnation when their members commit wrongdoing. Crooked cops and politicians, for example, are singled out by judges and prosecutors for abusing the public’s trust; sentencing day typically brings far harsher lectures from the bench for these criminals than for the garden-variety types boosting stuff from private citizens. Gary R. Snyder, the author of Nonprofits: On the Brink, is troubled by a lack of such condemnation and accompanying stiffer penalties for nonprofit professionals who engage in illegal activity:
For decades, the nonprofit sector has maintained a well-deserved imagine that has endeared it to the general public. The basis of that relationship has been trust. Trust is a precious resource. As recent studies have shown, the public’s trust in charities has plummeted. Even though those nonprofits involved in malfeasance are small it is growing exponentially-the amount of dollars involved is huge. With the sector’s trust breaking down, all nonprofits begin to look suspicious.
Relaxing sentences is not a good start.
I’m not so sure that imposing harsher sentences is the way to restore public trust in nonprofits. Greater transparency and vigilance on the part of boards and senior leadership in monitoring the activities of those underneath (and, in some cases, alongside) them will do more to boost reputations than sending an embezzler to the clink for long periods. I’m not saying that we should go easy on criminals, but a knee-jerk “Throw the book at them!” ignores the realities of limited penal resources and the unwillingness of taxpayers to pony up any more than the absolute minimum in order to fund even the most meager societal functioning. Mr. Snyder’s piece is definitely worth a read, but instead of tackling the endgame of nonprofit criminality, we’d be better off figuring out why it happens in the first place and devising ways to prevent it. Even better would be for that effort to come from nonprofit leaders themselves; that would be a terrific way for the sector to begin restoring trust.
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POSTED IN: Illegality, Leadership
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