How Not to Run a Non-Profit

A few weeks ago, a local non-profit closed down.  Seems that their Executive Director had been skimming money from their government contracts for years, and the organization owes banks and the IRS a bunch of money.  They think she took over $500,000, and right when she was about to get caught, she left the country to Venezuela.

As a glass half-empty kinda guy, I have to say that I always feel a little better knowing that there are people doing things worse than me out there. 

Me (to my board): "Sure, we are having financial difficulties and programmatic issues, but I haven't absconded with half a million dollars."

"Yes, we lost a big funder, but on the bright side I am not under multiple federal indictments."

"Yes, I am taking a vacation right after our big fundraising event.  But I'm going to Fredericksburg, not South America.  I'm pretty sure you can extradite me if needed."

It's like when my graduate students told me two summers ago that another adjunct instructor at the school had just been arrested for bank robbery.  I moved up one place on their "favorite professor" list that day.

OK, it's not about me.  It's about all of the people who won't be getting services because this person is a thief.

The sad thing is that she was a thief before they hired her.  She had spent time in jail for stealing $60,000 from previous employers and was on probation when they hired her into their FINANCE DEPARTMENT. 

I'm all for giving people a second chance.  And I don't necessarily think a criminal record should keep you from getting a job.  With some obvious exceptions.  I would not hire a convicted drug dealer to work as my pharmacy tech.  I would not hire an ex-priest to work at my childcare center.  I would not hire a convicted arsonist into my fire department.  And I would not hire a convicted thief to oversee the books.

But that's me.  Just a little bit better than people who are doing it the wrong way.  That, by the way, is the affirmational statement I use every morning.