January 4, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Lucy Bernholz, a board member of GiveWell, is seeking advice on how to deal with that organization’s recent Internet imbroglio, in which one of its co-founders was caught using online aliases to promote GiveWell.
On her blog, Philanthropy 2173, Ms. Bernholz wonders what the consequences should be for Holden Karnofsky, including the possibility the board fire him.
Several blogs are voicing their opinion on the matter.
Tom Belford, a nonprofit consultant and one of the authors of the The
Agitator blog, writes that Mr. Karnofsky is “an immature, under-informed, smart-ass,”
but that he deserves credit for pushing the nonprofit world to improve
and deserves a second chance.
David Geilhufe, a nonprofit technology expert, makes a similar plea
for “rehabilitation” on his blog, Social Source.
However, Adrian Hon, a computer-game designer and a member of the
online community group that uncovered the GiveWell deception, is less
forgiving.
On his Mssv blog, he writes, “perhaps Holden is a good guy. But he’s an adult, and he’s supposed to be responsible for influencing the flow of millions of dollars to charities; you would expect him to have some basic sense of judgment.”
Other blogs are gleaning the incident for lessons for other nonprofit
officials.
The author of the Donor Power
blog, Jeff Brooks,
writes that Mr. Karnofsky needed a mentor. “If you’re very young and
in the profession for the first time, get adult supervision,” writes
Mr. Brooks, who works for an advertising agency that serves nonprofit
groups.
On the Uncivilsociety blog, Jeff Trexler, offers five lessons that can be learned from the incident. “In short, it all comes down to a lesson that we haven’t
seemed to learn from the earliest days of Greek drama: beware of
hubris,” writes Mr. Trexler, who is a professor of social
entrepreneurship at Pace University.
What do you think? Should Mr. Karnofsky be fired or be allowed to
stay? Join a discussion on the topic here or share your views by clicking on the “comments” link below.
