Ethics Scenario #17: Returning Warriors Help Fund

17. Harry is the new chair of Returning warriors Help Fund, an organization to provide veterans with services such as counseling, housing, and mental health services. He has discovered that the organization is spending much more on fundraising services than it is providing in actual program services to its constituency. He believes that there isn’t an arms-length relationship between the organization’s staff, board, and for-profit fundraiser. He makes a motion at the next board meeting to declare the five-year contract with the fundraising organization null and void, and that the Treasurer should be prohibited from making any more payments to that fundraising organization until it raises at least as much money as it bills the organization for its fundraising services.

a. Is the Chair acting ethically with this motion?

b. Is the chair acting legally with this motion?

c. What alternative actions can the Chair pursue if he believes that there is an unethical relationship between the organization and its fundraiser?