Faith Works 9-22-23

Faith Works 9-22-23
Jeff Gill

Donation season is setting in
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Let me share some news with you all in this developing season of donation requests, as they flood into our mailboxes and email accounts.

Nice people can be terrible managers of large, complex operations.

Good managers of large, complex operations can be horrible people on a personal level.

Good causes can be used to front fairly mundane greedy donation harvesting operations.

Bad fundraisers can be excellent advocates for important causes, just not in terms of raising money.

Excellent fundraisers can use a modest amount of good work done to cover for operations that mostly enrich key staff and accomplish very little.

Alternatively, well paid executives can also do good work; poorly compensated ones can also be ineffective leaders — and I'm always wary of any organization head who says too often "I'm not making a dime." They DO exist, but it's broadly speaking a signal to do due diligence.

Donation season is ramping up: my elderly father-in-law's mailbox is JAMMED with appeals. Lots of people give based on fundraising materials. Friends, a modest amount of checking can complicate simple stories, but give you peace of mind at the end of the day.

Full disclosure — I've had to be on clean-up crews for far too many community or faith-based programs that imploded over bad faith, internal controls collapsing, or simple improvidence or malfeasance. All of them had one thing in common: a refusal of smart people to believe nice people doing good things might be either inept, or somewhat scammy, let alone outright lying. Do everyone a favor, and check out some basic info from third parties before you give.

One modest obscured example from many years ago: I was a board chair (hint - if you want to stay out of these situations, never agree to serve as board chair, of anything) & our executive director came to me. Some mail had been misdirected to our address. "This can't be what it looks like, can it?" I took it off that person's hands, went with the materials to the United Way board chair. "This can't be what it looks like, can it?" Once we agreed it was, we had a meeting with our fiscal officers jointly, who said "This can't be what it looks like, can it?" Then we set up a meeting with the agency director who was doing not right things, and he loudly affirmed "This isn't what it looks like!" We had a follow-up meeting with legal representation on both sides; sadly the relevant agency board chair resigned the moment we reached out to them. At the lawyered-up meeting, admissions were made, to what turned out to be about half of what had to be rectified in the end.

Two points: not counting the board chair who likely knew & didn't want to deal with this, there were about five points at which this all could have stopped, and the problem grown to where it couldn't be resolved without dire outcomes. Each stage required facing unpleasant facts.

The other point is I have multiple stories in this vein, from three states. It will always happen where there's not adequate oversight & multiple controls. Which take time & attention… but are worth it in the end.

I'd name some national organizations but I don't have the time or bandwidth to respond to those whose oxes might be gored. This can include anyone from coaches of professional sports teams, to clergy heads of para church organizations, or about smaller programs claiming larger impact than their press kits can really support.

But almost any of them will hit you with multiple mailings annually if you send them a $5 check & your email.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's asked for money, and he gives money (sometimes). Tell him how you decide where to donate at knapsack77@gmail.com, or @Knapsack77 on Threads.