Fundraisers’ Group to Put Ethics in the Spotlight Throughout October

Controversy over nonprofits that have accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein and the Sackler family has been sparking protests and blaring across news pages and television coverage. But as the public asks fresh questions about donor anonymity and what counts as tainted money, some might say Ethics Awareness Month in October has arrived a little too late.

But the Association of Fundraising Professionals has had plans for this campaign for many months and picked October because it is just ahead of the busy fundraising season. More important, its leaders say, ethics is a topic of perennial relevance.

“A lot of people believe we have entered a new era of philanthropy scandal,” says Robbe Healey, vice president for philanthropy at Simpson Senior Services and chair of AFP’s Ethics Committee. But she says the organization was founded in 1960 partly because of “concerns about ethical practice and unethical practice. It’s been a driving force since the very beginning.”

One a Day

The fundraisers’ association requires members to comply with its Code of Ethical Standards, which was designed to provide concrete guidelines for nonprofit fundraising professionals. The group publishes a list on its website of fundraisers who have been sanctioned or expelled from the organization. The goal of Ethics Awareness Month is to give fundraisers the tools and skills they need to draft documents and policies, such as gift agreements, and to lead conversations with nonprofit executives and staff members to be sure everybody knows about fundraising ethics.

Beginning Tuesday, the group’s leaders will launch a social-media campaign to explain one of the 25 standards in its ethics code each business day, with the goal of demystifying the rules for fundraisers, board members, donors, and others.

They’ve also produced short videos about key areas that cause many of the most prominent ethics concerns: tainted money, compensation, privacy, appearance of impropriety, stewardship, honesty and transparency, and conflicts of interest. Those videos will be released throughout the month.

In addition, AFP has devoted the latest issue of its quarterly Advancing Philanthropy magazine to ethics topics and will post a variety of ethics-related resources on its website. The organization typically restricts those resources to paying members but is making most of them available to everyone throughout the year.

“Expanding the awareness of ethics is an extension of building out the professionalism of fundraising as a career path,” says Jason Lee, AFP’s chief advocacy and strategy officer and general counsel.

More In-Depth

Some have argued professional organizations aren’t doing enough to equip fundraisers with the tools they need to juggle the ethical quandaries they face in their careers. They say conference sessions on ethics issues often fail to probe deep enough or give fundraisers the real-world context they need.

At AFP’s conference for its chapter leaders later this week, the organization plans to solicit stories of real-world ethical dilemmas from attendees and work through them in real time. They’ll also discuss case studies of situations that occur commonly.

“It’s increasingly important for AFP to have a more focused and deliberate presence around conversations about ethics,” Healey says, especially when fundraisers are going about the day-to-day demands of their jobs, “not simply responding to a scandal or some kind of controversy.”

Eden Stiffman reports on nonprofit trends and fundraising for the Chronicle. She recently interviewed MIT’s Epstein Whistle blower about her own lack of fundraising ethics training , and other topics. She also writes a popular weekly fundraising newsletter . Email Eden or follow her on Twitter .