Lower Than Usual

Between the main blog and this newer space we’ve seen a lot of bad behavior over the past few years; the sort of knavery, chicanery and douchebaggery that would make you lose your faith in humanity if you still had any, as well as the sort of credulous idiocy that borders on arrogance (the “Oh, that sort of scam could never happen to ME!” kind of thing). Needless to say, they go together – there’s very little a scam artist likes better than people who (for whatever reason) believe themselves immune to a particular scam. But I personally can’t think of any class of people more subject to this type of self-delusion than the senior management groups of non-profit organizations, or any type of low-life more scummy than the ones who intentionally prey upon such groups. Unfortunately, I’ve just run across a story that illustrates both points all too well…


Some of you will remember that I spent a number of years doing consulting work with non-profit organizations, and a common trait of managers within that industry is that most of them are motivated more by their dedication to the cause they serve than by money, professionalism, or even satisfaction at a job well done. While this may be seen as praiseworthy, or even noble, it does give rise to a certain misplaced confidence in the importance of what they are doing – or, perhaps, that everyone else in our society is just as invested in the cause as they are. Thus, such people earnestly believe that no one would consider suing them for unpaid bills, arresting them for misappropriation of funds, or running a scam on them because what they are doing is all “for the greater good…”


Leaving aside for a moment that this is an end-means argument, and thus inherently ethically weak, this belief ignores the fact that people who are willing to steal from ordinary people without regard for relationships damaged, dreams crushed, or lives destroyed are not going to care if their actions will also have a larger negative effect on our society. A good case in point came up in an NPR story this week, which details an ongoing scam preying on non-profit groups. You can find the original story here if you want to, but the basic idea is that this company offered to produce a professional documentary about the targeted non-profits, generally using stock footage of some well-known newsreader as bait. The scammers claimed that the documentary would air on PBS stations, resulting in nation-wide public awareness of the agency and its mission, and leading to vast increases in street credibility, celebrity and philanthropic attention, and ultimately increased fund raising…


It would be tedious to enumerate all of the things about this dubious piece of business that should raise red flags in the mind of any reasonably sane person, but the one that stands out (at least to me) is the fact that these scammers are promising a host of benefits, but not actually guaranteeing anything. The fact that there are no such programs on PBS (and never have been) and that there are no references they can offer you could be explained away as factors of the firm just starting up – although we should question if any business, let alone a small non-profit group, should be throwing large sums of money at an untried new company with no evidence the investment will be worth anything – but in almost any other business enterprise, most people are savvy enough to realize that you get what you pay for, an offer that appears to be too good to be true usually ISN’T true, and even a signed contract won’t keep you from being cheated, let alone scammed outright…


So here we have the case of people who prey upon non-profit executives because they know such people are frequently unsophisticated (if not openly credulous or foolish) in a business sense, and people who foolishly squander charitable donations and philanthropic support which may be the only hope their constituent populations have because they can’t be bothered to learn how businesses actually work, hire a competent lawyer, check out suspicious offers with their state and local authorities, or even look up such offers on line. It’s very rare to encounter a crime where both the criminal and the victim are racing to the bottom, and taking our entire society along for the ride – but I think this story qualifies…