Broken Link in the Chain of Public Trust

There was a sad article in the NY Times last week about a nonprofit executive who was arrested on charges of stealing $5 million from his charity.  Most of the money went to co-conspirators and state legislators as kickbacks in return for government contracts.  But $1 million went into the executive’s own pocket.

Every time a nonprofit executive brings dishonor to him/herself, it reflects poorly on all of us and weakens the public’s trust in the nonprofit sector.  That’s why it is so important for all nonprofit leaders to be beyond reproach.  If you would be embarrassed to have your activities reported on the front page of your local paper, then you are probably doing something that will eventually hurt yourself, your organization and the entire nonprofit sector.   Don’t do it!    

When and Where Will the Politicization of the Nonprofit Sector End?

    

While I’ve been away over the summer, the nonprofit sector has been further degraded by those who are using its legal and regulatory system to hide their electioneering efforts. 

As reported in today’s 09/13/13 NYTIMES article entitled, “TaxFilings Hint at Extent of Koch Brothers’ Reach,” the Koch brothers are now using a network of financially linked 501c-6 and 501c4 nonprofits to launder millions of tax-deductible “membership dues” that are being used for political purposes.  This is making it virtually impossible to identify the source of funding for the political activities of so-called social welfare organizations.   Welcome to the new "Nonprofit Sector" in which layers of interlocking “shell” organizations are created in order to obscure the source and usage of de facto political campaign contributions. 

When will the nonprofit sector stand up and state in the clearest and strongest possible words, “Enough is enough!  We are not going to allow the public’s trust in the nonprofit sector to be eroded by those who want to manipulate its laws and regulations to secretly influence our nation’s free and democratic elections.  If you want to influence the outcome of elections, do so within the rules and structures of our nation’s campaign finance laws.  Stay out of our nonprofit sector! You are not welcome here!”    Thoughts?

 

PS  There is a second article in the 9/13/13 NYTIMES about the influence of “outside” money in the current NYC mayoral race now that a billionaire, spending millions of his own dollars on advertising, is not running.  And no surprise, the Koch brothers are at the center of this “outside” money and activity.