Mike’s Monday Message: Share Your Ethical Stories

Last week was incredible! We had an amazing leadership conference on Wednesday and Thursday—AFP LEAD VIRTUAL attracted over 420 people, a record number. If you didn’t get a chance to experience 12 great educational sessions and two extraordinary keynote speakers—Edgar Villanueva and Chef Jose Andres—you will be able to order these sessions in a couple of weeks and enjoy them online at your convenience.

Then on Friday, we held a meeting of the AFP Global Board of Directors, welcoming our new board members for 2021. Tycely Williams, CFRE, one of those new board members, led us through a fascinating and insightful exercise on identity and how we view ourselves and others. We also approved our new strategic plan for 2021 through 2023, and you’ll be receiving more information about the plan later this year.

Our busy month continues as we’re now in the middle of October—aka Ethics Awareness Month. I hope you’ve enjoyed our resources so far this year. We’ve already distributed some great resources, including two videos from our Ethics Committee and articles from partners like NTEN. We also are offering a webinar on ethics – Ethics: It’s Not Just About The Money – on Oct. 22, free of charge to members. You can get more information about all of these resources at our Ethics Awareness Month webpage.

We’ve also just launched a new survey on ethics, and I encourage you to participate. We’re asking for stories about how you had to address ethical situations and dilemmas—what was the issue, what did you do, was it resolved successfully, and looking back, is there something different you wished you had done?

Here’s the key. We’re not looking for major controversies. We’re looking for the stories of everyday dilemmas and situations you encounter all the time as a fundraiser. You might not even think of them as “ethical” because maybe they’re just part of your intrinsic values and principles system, but they’re choices you make every day. Or, maybe there’s a particular situation that you look back on and wish you had found a different way to tackle the issue, or wish you had possessed different ethical resources to help you address it. The survey is anonymous (if you want), so you don’t necessarily need to have come up with the “right” answer.

These are the types of stories and situations we’re looking for in this survey. Collecting these stories will help us further understand the issues fundraisers deal with daily, and point to additional guidance and resources AFP Global can develop to further support the fundraising community.

I hope you’ll participate, as ethical behavior, and understanding how to address ethical situations, is so critical for our profession. You can find the survey here, and email paffairs@afpglobal.org if you have any questions. Thank you for your engagement, and enjoy Ethics Awareness Month!

Mike Geiger, MBA, CPA