In the world of fundraising, ethics is one of those topics we talk a lot about. Every October is Fundraising Ethics month across the profession, so I apologize that this is just a little late. There are classes, webinars, surveys on ethics types, and there’s even a new little thing called the Ethical Lens assessment you can take. As professional fundraisers, we follow the Code of Ethical Standards created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
We know that ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. We also know that philanthropy is the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes. It only makes sense that we put these together to do the most good for the most people.
As a nonprofit, we express our ethics in the simplest of ways, our mission statement. We take them further through values and vision statements. And, finally, we explain and present them in a detailed Case for Support. But do we do anything differently than say… politicians? Businesses? Journalists? Marketing professionals? Not really. All of these types of businesses have a mission, vision, values, and an overall reason as to why we need to use their products, services, or support them. They have created Corporate Social Responsibilities, Codes of Conducts.
And regardless of what industry you are in, there will always be scandals. And scandals are caused by people who go against the ethics established by businesses, organizations, and the public. Each industry will have scandals.
So how do you know if what you are doing is unethical? Before your organization does a thing, have the decision makers answer these questions –
Can I live with myself?
Will the community support this decision?
How will this look in the media?
Can I defend this?
Would I support others if they did this?
Who is benefiting from this?
If your leader answers negatively to any of these questions, it is probably worth taking a little longer to make the decision, take the action, make a statement, or create the policy – regardless of your industry.
P.S. I don’t feel like my blogs are complete now unless there is a The Office reference. So… The Office reference regarding ethics and scandal – I present The Rise and Fall of Ryan the Temp…
Fundraising with Jenn 