Ethics Scenario #108: Men's Health Project

108. The Men’s Health Project is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization dedicated to education and advocacy relating to diseases that afflict mostly men, including prostate and testicular cancer, but also diseases and conditions that have a broader appeal, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and obesity. Over the years, the Project has compiled a mailing list of almost 50,000 addresses of donors, and an email list of almost 100,000. A for-profit fundraising organization has approached the Project’s executive director, Manny, about purchasing the lists. He offers the Project $5,000 for it, and Manny finds this quite generous, considering there are no costs involved in electronically transferring the data to this professional fundraiser.

a. Is Manny acting ethically by selling this data to a professional fundraising firm?