My newspaper frequently covers scandals where charities have misused donations or staff have absconded with funds. Every story like that reduces my ability to raise funds for my charity even though we are not part of this wrongdoing. I think most charities in my community are honest and try to use their resources for good. Are the newspapers being ethical toward us?

My clippings file on these horror stories grows ever thicker, and my heart sinks every time I see another headline of this kind.

Newspapers primarily report news. They do not have an ethical obligation to suppress news in order to protect people or organizations. News usually means something exceptional happened – so in effect they are saying it is out of the ordinary when charities misuse monies. I know that is little consolation. They are not required to point out every time that they are reporting on exceptions.

Isolated news stories are just that – something newsworthy and of interest to readers. Good charities often have trouble generating newsworthy items, and even when positive human interest stories are published, they may be buried in a back section of a thick weekend paper. This may not be fair, but it does not seem to break the code of ethics for journalists.

Columnists are entitled to write whatever they want, within legal boundaries, and do. They are allowed to write based on their biases, and therefore are free to concentrate on the bad news. They are hired to be opinionated and thought-provoking, not to be reporters.

The ethical problems arise when investigative journalists allow their biases to affect their stories, and when journalists mix news and opinion into a single article.

I checked the Canadian Association of Journalists Statement of Principles and Ethics Guidelines as well as the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. The latter group is American.

Both speak to not mixing factual news and opinion. The Canadian code says, “We will clearly identify news and opinion so readers, viewers and listeners know which is which.” The American code says, “Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or content.” As well, they both speak to not allowing personal biases or cultural values to influence fair and accurate reporting. “Deliberate distortion is never permissible.”

So when I see a newspaper article or series that purports to help donors know whether or not their donations are well-used, but focuses solely on the relatively small number of bad apples, I know that reporter is not an ethical journalist. I cannot remotely rely on anything in those stories. But of course, other donors may not realize that these items in their newspaper are not worth the time it takes to read them. A major paper in my community does this, and I have to read the stuff (I would use a much stronger derogatory term here if I could) because it relates to my work and I might get asked about it. That reporter did not respond to offers from me or others in the field who wanted to help him put his stories in context.

Even a story spurred by a recent scandal could helpfully point out how donors can protect themselves. It can give tips about accessing data filed with the government and avoiding giving to telemarketing companies or to unknown charities at the door. It is news when a con artist uses a name similar to a respected charity and tries to seek funds in its name. The news story needs to give balance by letting the real charity tell its story of how it does raise funds and what it does with them.

Annual reports can be a great source of information for donors, but few charities manage to get news coverage for release of their reports. If they tied them to interesting events or news stories, it might help papers give more balanced coverage.

If you want to help the sector, write to your paper or other news outlet when you see a good article about charities, and encourage them to carry more. Do not just do this for your own charity; that will look like self-interest when the point is to reestablish trust in the sector. Most charities are run and staffed by people who truly want to serve their community well, and do so on very limited resources. They leverage resources rather than waste them, within their skill level (the dearth of access to good training for leadership volunteers and charity staff is a whole other topic).

The other side is to help ensure that charities avoid future scandals. Financial controls, avoidance of percentage-based telemarketing companies, better reference and background checks, and access to training would all help. Notice that these are administrative not program costs! The biggest help would be if grantors and major givers realized that it costs money to run an organization well. The focus on funding only “new initiatives” or looking for 100% of donations to go into programs causes some of the scandals we read about.

It might also help if journalism schools invited speakers from the charitable sector to help their students learn the impact of negative bias reporting.

So yes, a small number of reporters may not be treating charities ethically. Their lapses should be obvious to their editors. Most reporters are simply reporting the news as they see it, perhaps without thinking about how to make their stories better through balanced information.

The sector continues to have trouble getting its side seen as newsworthy and trouble putting controls in place to reduce the number of scandals. Charity scandals involve small amounts compared to some corporate and government ones, but the misuse of public and donor monies will continue to make headlines.

Since 1992, Jane Garthson has dedicated her consulting and training business to creating better futures for our communities and organizations through values-based leadership. She is a respected international voice on governance, strategic thinking and ethics. Jane can be reached at jane@garthsonleadership.ca.

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Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.