Haiti Needs Help, Not Hate (or: Why I Still Support Yele Haiti)
So I just watched @Wyclef‘s response to the accusations that Yele Haiti has been misusing funds: http://bit.ly/5Ac6gD. (Thanks to @TProlificJones for that link!)
I admit, I waited two days before giving my $5 but not because I’d suspected any foul dealings – I was worried about possible “international fees” charged by my bank. (Hey, I’m charitable when I can be, but I’ve no room for surprise fees!) My heart skipped a beat when I first heard of the scuttlebutt, but I figured I’d wait for Wyclef himself to respond before I formulated an opinion. And I’m glad I did.
Truth be told, I honestly don’t know what I “think of his response”, but I do have an opinion about the situation overall. Firstly, I’m glad Wyclef noted that fundraisers have significant overhead costs – this is one reason I don’t exactly like throwing fundraisers. (Note: not that these events are bad, but careful cost-benefit analysis is absolutely critical.) That said, I think the problem is more about shady *looking* alliances than actual fiscal mismanagement.
As some of you know, I am developing a nonprofit, but I also have a slightly related side-gig that I’d love to link to the nonprofit as a potential source of sustainable income. I recently decided this wouldn’t be such a great idea and this situation with Wyclef is a big illustration of why. (There are also other reasons that don’t matter for this post.)
While it’s not technically illegal for a board member to provide fee-based services or products to a nonprofit on which s/he serves, things get *really* messy when it happens. I won’t get into the specifics, but suffice it to say that there is a very fine line when it comes to determining whether and how the board member is gaining from such contracts. In order to avoid trying to explain away suspected conflicts of interests, nonprofits generally avoid them all together. However, people often donate services and/or products to nonprofits as a way to fulfill or expand their fundraising responsibilities as board members. And of course, the resulting tax write-off is a wonderful thing. This would have been a much better way for Wyclef & his partners to conduct affairs.
Some might argue that, given the sheer amount of overlap, it might seem unfeasible for all the services listed to have been donated, and I agree. While I don’t have a “magic formula” for how to determine what constitutes a reasonable donation, I do think that this is something board members and founders should seriously consider when establishing organizations such as Yele Haiti. I totally understand that Wyclef is mega rich and has mega special access to a lot of resources and locations. I also believe that he truly carries an amazing burden for the healing of his country. Under these circumstances, I’d probably be inclined to do the same thing he has done. The difference between me and Wyclef is that I happen to “know better”.
Yele Haiti is a young organization and young organizations do make mistakes. Hell, old organizations make mistakes! And again, Yele maintains that the funds were used for overhead costs, not to line anyone’s pockets. So, while it doesn’t sound like there was technically any wrongdoing, there definitely should have been someone there to say, “Hey, this is gonna look suspect to a lot of people; perhaps we should go about things differently.”
Everyone is hyper-concerned about where money is going – and for good reason! Current economic instability and fiscal mismanagement tied to other disasters have shown us that we all need to be more informed about these things. However, rather than wasting valuable time and energy trying to point fingers in the blame game, we need to all focus on the tragic matter at hand. Haiti has been suffering for YEARS, due to the stripping of her resources. The least we could do right now is to focus on rebuilding what was just destroyed. As Wyclef said, if you don’t want to donate to Yele, donate to someone else. All that matters in the end is that we rebuild the land and her people. L’union fait la force!
(Thanks to @EDUCATIONCEO for the title inspiration! I repeat: L’union fait la force!)
Filed under: Call to Action | Closed
Tags: Current Events, LinkedIn, Nonprofit Management, Ruminations
