Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties

As the news of the hacking scandal emanates across the pond and the stain of scandal spills like black ink across a white table cloth, you wonder where all this will ultimately end; and by the time you read this, maybe we will know.  But as of this writing, the Prime Minister of Britain, the highest officials in Scotland Yard, and of course, James and Rupert Murdoch together with the corporate leadership of the London papers, including Rebecca Brooks, have all suffered intense, invasive scrutiny to determine their role of responsibility. The searing condemnation and public shaming have ignited multiple resignations, criminal charges, and now, perhaps the dissolution, of at least parts of the world’s most powerful media empire. 

The sensational revelations produced by exposure of  intensely-kept secrets or that yield a juicy bit by invading one’s privacy are temptation on stick. It is stunning to see how deep and broad the infection spread, described by a former editor of the News of the World, as a culture given over to and bent “on destroying lives”. This approach to journalism was, in effect, management at the highest echelons trolling and throwing bloody chum that attracted hackers all too eager to feed in a frenzy of misdeeds. It is hard to imagine all those questionable payments of millions were not in an expense report somewhere that should have attracted the profound attention of management. The Murdochs deny any knowledge of wrong doing. Famously, in a turn of events, they now protest that the buck surely stops somewhere else. 

 

The issue of accountability also raises the question of where was Murdoch’s News Corporation’s own board of directors? The board’s job description is that of providing accountability and oversight of the News Corporation’s corporate business.  These are the independent directors that bear financial responsibility to the shareholders in the company, the shareholders who must surely be grousing and nervous about the financial fallout and the decline in the value of shares as this drama plays out.  Until recently there had been no public statement of regret by the board of the company’s scandalous activities, no push for an external investigation to get to the bottom of the ethical and criminal violations, no call for the resignations of corporate managers who were at the helm of the newspapers from hell. Only recently has the board made its presence known by venturing perhaps it should have more of a hands-on approach given that the future of the Murdochs is now uncertain in the management of the business. Perhaps James Murdoch will be asked to step down as chair of the Corporation’s board.

 

This reminds me of the buzz and incredulity that went around in philanthropy when Bernie Madoff went down and casualties of the Ponzi scheme followed like dominoes. A billion dollar foundation disappeared here and hundreds of nonprofits elsewhere lost their assets because they were all invested in Madoff’s black box. There’s no pleasure in recalling the misery that collapse eventually spawned; but you had to wonder, where were the boards of directors?

 

Governance is a critical issue in the nonprofit world. It might surprise you to learn there is a national certification program for Community Foundations that codifies a standard of excellence and ethical practice. The certification ensures the operations and institutional behaviors of community foundations pass a rigorous “sniff” test that gets very deep into how a community foundation does its business. This goes beyond the rule of state and federal law that is imposed on charitable organizations. The certification process requires full disclosure and documentary evidence of what the community foundation does, how it does it, and the methods and procedures by which governance, operations and grant making are administrated and accomplished, all of which is subject to intensive peer review. 

 

Only after successful completion of that process does a Community Foundation receive certification. The national standards are especially important when it comes to the issue of where the buck stops. There is no ambiguity around the role of governance and the responsibility of stewardship that is the job of the board of directors. A Community Foundation that has earned certification as having met the National Standards (as your Community Foundation has) is testament to how seriously the board takes its responsibilities to protect the community foundation’s most important assets: its reputation, integrity, transparency, accountability and demonstrated commitment to ethical policies and practices.  No matter the sector, were these values more broadly shared, the headlines we’d be reading today would be very different.     

 

The views expressed in this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Community Foundation.