Enjoy monthly posts by Joan Harrington, Social Sector Ethics
Conflicts of interest and questions of fairness and accountability challenge nonprofit organizations and foundations, just as they do businesses and other organizations. The Center’s new monthly blog, "Ethical Dilemmas in the Social Sector," explores these issues. For example:
- A board is excessively deferential to the executive director and doesn’t implement oversight policies that would have prevented the ED from stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars over eight years. What could the board have done differently and did the board act ethically?
- An ED struggles to get a disengaged board to move forward with a strategic plan; most members don’t even attend the board strategic planning meeting. What should the board be doing and are the members acting ethically?
Written by Joan Harrington, the blog uses real-life examples to highlight how Standards for Excellence®, a customized ethics and accountability program for nonprofits and philanthropists, can help prevent unethical behavior in organizations.
Harrington is the Center’s assistant director of Social Sector Ethics and a lecturer for the SCU School of Law. An expert in the law and ethics of nonprofits, she has worked extensively in the social sector, including serving as general counsel of the international relief and development agency, Save the Children. The Center’s Social Sector Ethics Program seeks to raise the level of accountability, ethical decision making, and effectiveness of all nonprofit organizations to foster excellence and inspire trust.