Friends,
Another scandal hit the American Red Cross. According to an article in today's New York Times, "the American Red Cross ousted its president, Mark Everson, on Tuesday after learning that he had engaged in a 'personal relationship' with a subordinate employee." For me, the juicy part was not in the salacious details (pretty cliché, though no info was provided), but that Mr. Everson was most recently Commissioner of the Internal Revenue (naturally, a Bush appointee). As much fun as this is, it's also devastating news for an organization that has ricocheted between scandals and has lost much donor trust.
I have been fascinated by the hubris demonstrated by leaders of large national philanthropies--United Way of America, Smithsonian Institution, and the American Red Cross, just to name a few where it has been customary to recruit CEOs from outside of the nonprofit community. I don't think we are doing enough within the nonprofit sector to convey to our boards that, while leadership and business management skills are essential qualities to look for in a CEO, they are subordinate to scrupulous attention to the institution's mission. Too many board members have read Good to Great without reading Jim Collins's accompanying monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors, where he draws clear distinctions between what constitute leadership qualities in the public and private sectors. He even goes so far to say that the for-profit world would benefit from recruiting non-profit professionals who have perfected their "legislative leadership."
At a time when nonprofits are facing greater skepticism and doubt, the online fundraising world has been rattled by news that one of its largest service providers, Convio, was the victim of hacking that compromised the security and gained access to the email addresses of thousands of donors to 92 nonprofits. A New York Times article points out that most of the affected charities responded sluggishly to the news, and when they did something, it was in the form of an email notification. The article quotes experts on security who feel that the nonprofits need to do much more to notify donors and alert the public to such breaches including utilizing traditional media. Of course, most nonprofits shy away from such adverse publicity despite the fact that donors care deeply about transparency.
On a personal note, my alma mater, University of Connecticut, notified me on November 6th (one day after the breach) about the issue. The Times article doesn't identify them as one of the four nonprofits that had communicated the breach to their donors by November 16th, but UCONN sent an email (interestingly enough, "powered by Convio") that included a link to their foundation website which goes into great detail about the incident and has a very good FAQ section. I'm proud of UCONN's rapid response and feel that they are doing everything they can to keep donors up to date.
What this bodes for on-line giving remains an interesting question. While I have given online in the past, I generally enjoy the tactile pleasure of writing checks for my charitable donations. I'm probably more gun-shy now about making on-line gifts and suspect that it will take more effort on the part of nonprofits (and Convio) to demonstrate to me and other donors that it's safe.
Talk to you soon!
Bob
