Keeping an Industry Scandal From Tarnishing Your Organization

I once had a donor call and offer a substantial gift if I would guarantee that we would not take overhead out of it. It was tempting since the need was huge. But I knew that if we didn't take overhead out of his major gift, every $15 and $25 gift would have to go 100 percent to cover the very real fact of overhead. After explaining to him that we could not accept his gift under those terms, he reconsidered and made his gift with the understanding that it was subject to overhead. That was a tough conversation — and ethical issues usually are. But at the end of the day, let's be proud of our work and proud that we accomplished it while staying true to our ethical convictions — and our organizations' standards.