Man, the infighting at Charities is vicious!
(I don't know anything more than what I read in the papers...)
The only thing wrong with non-profits are the people who volunteer for them. No...wait. That can't be right....
I've always been of the opinion that if you have any small group bigger than 2, you have in-fighting. Considering some marriages, maybe it's any group bigger than 1.
Which is why I own a independently owned business, where I make all the decisions.
Anyway, my guess on the non-profits is that they are almost by definition run by committee. And you can't run an efficient operation by committee.
Some of them, especially local ones, have strong founders and/or leaders, who sometimes run afoul of these committees. Meanwhile, the committees sometimes have out-of-control or dysfunctional managements that they have to try to rein in. All pretty much a recipe for disaster.
(And I suppose the opposite can be true -- dysfunctional committees, interfering with effective management.)
Since government is often run the same way, it's a wonder anything gets done.
If it was a for profit business, the dysfunctional leader would destroy the business, and it would just be another business failure, harming only those who are invested in it.
But charities have a higher mission. It ends up hurting those who they are trying to help.
Don't know what the answer it.
Just glad I don't have anyone looking over my shoulder.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Smaller nonprofits like the Community Center typically have boards composed of people close to the founder or executive director. They almost always rubber stamp the policies of the executive director and don't take any effective action to reign in an out of control management unless the sh@t is about to hit the fan. This occurs even in the large nonprofits like Komen. It is too bad that people on these boards don't do the jobs they are tasked with, oversee the management.
"Anyway, my guess on the non-profits is that they are almost by definition run by committee."
They're legally required to have boards of directors. As Anonymous says, some boards are more active than others. It's sometimes hard to know when board oversight crosses the line into micromanagement.
Post a Comment