Power Corrupts–Even at Charities

Paul Clolery has an excellent piece at Huffington Post about the recent death of William Aramony and the Penn State scandal.  He writes:

“Aramony was the center of the United Way sex and finance scandal during the 1990s and for a quarter-century was the punchline for charity officials going off the rails.”

“The Penn State scandal, which is all about corruption on many more levels, can be the new example that people — donors — can point to as power unchecked.”

A major theme of this blog is how power has corrupted charity regulators to the point that they are actually the biggest violators of the laws governing charitable fundraising.  Laws governing regulation of charitable fundraising include the Bill of Rights.  It may come as a surprise to many (most?) charity regulators that the Bill of Rights is law, and they are bound by it.

Nobody disputes that there are problems in the charitable sector.  If charity regulators were honest with and about themselves, they’d be better at snuffing out the bad apples in the charitable sector.