Board Dealings Should Not Be Banned

To the Editor:

In response to the article “Congress Should Reject the Idea of Adding New Restrictions on Charities” (Opinion, April 9), let me agree with the authors that abuses need to be corrected. But prohibiting dealings with board members is not a good idea.

I have no million-dollar study to back up my contention, but I believe most agencies who do business with their board members get a better deal because they are board members.

One of my board members owned a printing business. I needed some printing done. I went to get a bid from him. He began calculating the bid and quickly got to $1,000. He wasn’t done with his calculations when I told him I only had $400. He then said, “Then I will do it for $400.”

A current board member gives us a discount on every job she does for us, does some printing free, and gives both a corporate and individual gift to our agency. I know that I am not alone in this situation. Every executive director that I know of can tell you similar stories.

One of the advantages of recruiting board members from companies is that they bring resources with them. Prohibiting me from doing business with them would force me to spend more money doing business with a company that does not have a commitment to my agency. Making a law under the naïve assumption that it would stop the criminal activity that goes on in less than 1 percent of cases is inane. It would stop those of us that get great deals from our board members, because we don’t want to put them in any jeopardy. It would cost us more money. It would not stop the crooks.

Many of Congress’s actions never take into consideration the law of unintended consequences. When they try to stop the 1 percent who abuse the situation by hurting the 99 percent who do not, they are hurting this country more than they are helping. A conflict-of-interest policy that requires board members to disclose to other board members that they have a personal interest in the issue, and insistence that they recuse themselves from voting on the issue is very important. Transparency works. If I get three bids on the project and my board member gives the lowest bid, prohibiting me from taking that bid just costs me more money.

Gregory G. Falk
President
Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton & Franklin Counties
Pasco, Wash.