We posed this question to a number of museum professionals and here is what some of them have said:
A:1
The short answer to this question is NO. While it is legal, it is not ethical. The Code of Ethics of all organizations to which professionals engaged in fundraising might belong prohibits payments of a percentage of charitable funds raised to staff who are involved in the arrangement. These organizations include the Association of Fundraising Professionals, The Canadian Association of Gift Planners and the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy.
There are several reasons for this standard.
Many donors take exception to a portion of their charitable gift being paid to the staff member who likely had a hand in securing the gift. Organizations which raise non-charitable income (through special events as an example) may use this revenue to pay staff salaries.
If the gift is a substantial one, it is likely that the arrangement was initiated between two peers: one, the donor and the second, a volunteer representative from the charity.
A donation may be the result of a long-term relationship with a donor which was initiated before current staff were part of the organization. It may be secured with the assistance of a number of individuals, both volunteer and staff; thus to give a percentage to one individual is inappropriate. Similarly, a relationship begun now may or may not result in a gift at some future point.
We must assume that the staff members who are responsible for fundraising receive a salary that reflects their experience and expertise.
The term “bonus” is a different situation. A fundraising staff member may receive a bonus if it is part of the compensation for all staff members based on a predetermined set of criteria against which the bonus is determined. How it is calculated is beyond the scope of this question.
Betsy Clarke
Consultant in Philanthropy
A:2
I am well aware of the need for a code of ethics that governs the fundraising activities of professional and volunteer fundraisers. The AFP's code runs to over 40 pages, including a clear and concise section that forbids its members from accepting compensation or entering into a contract based on a percentage of contributions received from donors. Nor are members allowed to accept finder's fees or contingent fees.
AFP members may accept performance-based compensation, such as bonuses, provided such bonuses are in accord with prevailing practices within the members' own organizations and are not based on a percentage of contributions.
It is important to strongly insist on never allowing the fundraiser(s) to be paid on a percentage basis because they can inflict serious and long-lasting damage to the organization's (in this case the museum's) donor base. By trying to raise the largest amount possible within the shortest time so as to increase their own income, unethical fundraisers annoy, infuriate and lose the respect of individual donors who have been subjected to pressure tactics. The museum loses the trust and respect of the people who are its most dedicated supporters. Damage once done may linger for years.
Doris M. Smith is a former (now retired) member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). She also received the CMA Award for Voluntarism in 2007.
A:3
While I’m not sure of the legality of this question I feel that it would be ethically wrong for a staff member to benefit by way of a percentage bonus for successful fundraising.
I believe that a person employed by a museum is there to do a specific job – the one which is described in the Position Description. It seems to me that if that person were to be allowed to keep a portion of funds raised then he or she might spend an inordinate amount of time on fundraising while his other duties would suffer from neglect. Simply put, if it’s part of the job, why does he or she get a bonus for it?
The ONLY way that I would see the above question as relevant is if someone was hired specifically to fundraise and that the agreed compensation be a specified percentage of the monies raised. This too, it seems to me, would prove difficult since his fellow co-workers would then feel no compunction to assist the fundraiser in any way.
Finally, those who make donations to a museum fully expect the sum total of that donation to go to the museum and not to a specific staff member.
Eric Ruff, FCMA,
Curator Emeritus,
Yarmouth County Museum,
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
A:4
Associations of professional fundraisers generally state that it is unethical for fundraisers to be paid a percentage of what they have raised. There are myriad reasons why money is successfully raised and, in some cases, not raised — many of these reasons are external and not related to the fundraiser’s skill.
I believe that it is equally unethical for museum directors, or other staff members to receive a percentage of any new income they bring. They are, after all, simply doing the job they were hired to do — extremely well.
Brenda Berck
FCMA
A:5
I would say, emphatically, no to this question, on several counts. From an ethical standpoint, employees and trustees of a not-for-profit cannot benefit personally from their activities within or on behalf of the organization, and I would define the percentage you describe as such a benefit. From a practical standpoint, I cannot imagine donors (whether individual, foundation or corporation) being open to the concept of some of their support towards institutions going to an individual within that organization. From a legal standpoint, I can only assume that CRA rules would exclude that receipted monies to be directed to a person’s pocket (but only a tax lawyer could answer that side of things).
Some corporate employers do give bonuses to employees for exceptional service (or so the newspapers tell me). I am not aware of such practice in the museum/gallery sector. In the case of fundraisers, I suppose, that service could be deemed, among other things, to be success in garnering support dollars, but to my mind any such success is simply doing one’s job; otherwise, logically, one could say that failure to raise a target should result in reduction in pay! Be that as it may, to define any such bonus in terms of a percentage of the gift definitely crosses ethical lines in my opinion.
Anonymous
If you have an ethical question or dilemma you would like to share with us for anonymous publication, please email it to sfejzic@museums.ca.
