Basic Fund Raising Ethics for Higher Education

Brian, yes "lean" resonates with your humble servant here too. We are going to face becoming "lean" more and more or go out of business as the economy continues to tank. Yes, as you point out, one of the upsides of gifting is accountability. The donor wants to see what his gift achieved, and he has every right to do it. I favor this. Also, as you observe, gifting can also come with "strings." A friend of mine taught ethics in the business school at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He criticizes a corporation in Kenosha, Wisconsin for taking startup funds from the city and then leaving town as soon as the city would not keep giving them corporate welfare, which was not part of the startup deal. The city funding was only to be venture, startup capital, not an ongoing welfare check. The corporation figured that once operations were underway the city would not want to lose the jobs, so its threats to leave coerced funding. My friend Dennis pointed this out to the media; the corporation promptly informed the university that Dennis had to go - no tenrue and immediate termination. You know what happened. Dennis got "the door." He has recycled back into Madison through another college after several years of exile in Pennsylvania. When I taught business ethics onsite in Madison for another university, he was a regular guest speaker for me. Yes fund raising has ethical dimensions big time, accountability for the receiver, and possible coercion too of the receiver. You were very astute to spot this "fork in the road" in fund raising for higher education early.