Ethics in the New Year

(Added 01/04/17)

Q

Although we shouldn’t count end-of-year gifts sent by check if we have received them after the beginning of the new year and if the postmark is in the new year, my boss told me that it would be okay to “consider” the gift having been made in the old year, as long as it’s not too deep into the new year. He said this after we received a significant gift. We often receive such gifts but have been diligent about saving the envelope with the postmark to ensure that the mailbox rule was followed. He says we should just discard the envelope, use the date of the check on our acknowledgement, and no one is the wiser. After all, he said, the IRS doesn’t go digging around the filing cabinets of charities for this purpose. I certainly don’t want to report this to the IRS, of course, but what can I tell him? And the thing is, he’s a really good guy and cares about doing the right thing. And, although it doesn’t address this situation, we actually have an ethics policy.

A

People are often confronted with how to best determine the right course of action, and many times we fail. To begin, you can tell him he’s doing the wrong thing. Even though it may seem inconsequential, his approach to this issue has ramifications. He may be right that the IRS won’t be coming around to search the filing cabinets containing your donor records, but it may audit the donor, and you don’t want to be in the position of upholding a lie. But, more basically, the IRS has outlined what is acceptable and what is not, and that the chances of being found out are small is no defense or excuse.

That you have an ethics policy is laudable, of course — and that puts your organization in the minority — but a policy alone is not enough; the quality of the contents must reflect a good deal of soul-searching. Ethics policies, as is true with any set of policies, should not be filed away with some smug satisfaction that everyone has now done enough. It takes more to ensure an ethical atmosphere. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review, “Why Ethical people Make Unethical Choices,” quoted former federal prosecutor Serina Vash, “When I first began prosecuting corruption, I expected to walk into rooms and find the vilest people. I was shocked to find ordinarily good people I could well have had coffee with that morning. And they were still good people who’d made terrible choices.”

While the article identifies five reasons for this, the pervasive one for me is that the culture either permits bad decision-making or encourages it, and within that is the idea that performance targets can often create undue pressure to record results. I looked up your organization’s fiscal year and found that it ends with the calendar year, and so must wonder if your boss would like to count as much as possible for the year. When you think of it, the basic part of your question really isn’t about ethics; the law is clear. The ethical issue arises because of the gamble your office would make by not applying the rules, and the mindset the permits the thought to begin with.

greeing that your boss’s plan is wrong — by acknowledging the clarity of the law — is only the beginning. You need to dust off and read the ethics policy you have and bring it up to date, which might mean you add the situation you describe, and then resolve to read it often — once a quarter would be my recommendation — and amend it as needed. But, as with the original writing of it, the guts of the process cannot be merely mechanical or considered only quarterly. The office culture must accept and respect questions about behavior and everyone must set a positive example. Ethics isn’t a side matter to be found on a shelf; it is the guide for all we do. Nor is it a separate subject; it’s the living, breathing philosophy that informs all our significant decisions. Devoting ourselves to this would not be a bad New Year’s resolution.

If you have a question, please feel free to contact Doug White at dwhitepg@gmail.com. While all issues discussed are real, identities are kept confidential.

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