Ethical Dilemmas Relatively Rare in Fund Raising, Says New Poll

The lion’s share of fund raisers — 82 percent — face ethical dilemmas once a month or less, according to a new poll.

The informal online survey, conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals on its Web site from from late July to late August, garnered 493 responses. Fifty-eight percent of participants said that they encountered ethical challenges less than one a month, while 24 percent said once a month.

Ten percent of respondents reported facing ethical quandries at least once a week, and 8 percent said they encountered such situations two or three times per month.

“Ethics is critical to the success of fundraising and philanthropy, so it’s important to understand just how often fundraisers face ethical situations,” Paulette V. Maehara, chief executive of the association in Alexandria, Va., said in a written statement.

The organization plans to conduct future online polls to find out what kind of ethical challenges fund raisers face the most.