It is a terrible shame what is happening with—and allegedly by—the Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation. Those of us who work in the nonprofit sector, providing services not readily provided by our government or by the for-profit sector, hate to see any services lost or cut. We know how difficult, and how important, it is to provide quality services to the less fortunate.
When there is possible scandal with one nonprofit organization, it can blemish the wonderful reputation of the other nonprofit charities in our community, and that is what I write to you about today. From what I have read in the reporting provided by the Sun, the demise of the Lompoc housing corporation, and the resulting lack of critical services to the homeless in Lompoc, stems from terrible lack of oversight by that agency’s board of directors, the funders, and the community watchdogs in Lompoc and in our county.
As a nonprofit executive myself, I expect scrutiny in all that I do, and I prepare myself to answer all questions about my work, the funding my agency receives, and what my plans, projections, and outcomes are supposed to be, and then to answer truthfully when things don’t go according to plan. Absolute transparency is a must for all healthy businesses, and especially for those that rely on taxpayer dollars to operate, or those that rely on the generosity of others to meet the needs of their program budgets. If it is true that LHCDC did not file “mandatory” reports for years, that board members were unaware of activities done under their watch, and that county funds were distributed with little follow up or oversight, then many people who should have been taking their leadership and oversight positions seriously failed to do so.
Checks, balances, and internal and external controls are absolutely necessary. The failure to ask hard questions, make demands, and hold an agency accountable—long before crisis hits—is a job shared by a lot of people.
I do find it interesting, and possibly quite telling, that when the agency I currently work for applied for a grant distributed by the County Board of Supervisors in 2008 (before I was employed with the organization), the request was little more than a few paragraphs on a simple application. When I submitted that same grant request in 2011—after our economic “collapse” and a keener awareness about our county’s budget problems—I had to submit a comprehensive document more than 20 pages in length. Perhaps if strict scrutiny, a bar set very high, and a government philosophy that all dollars are sacred and should be doled out only to the most worthy of partners were in operation, it would be just as competitive to receive government dollars in the good times as it is in the lean times.
I hope that this situation with LHCDC serves as a reminder to us all that nonprofits want to be, and should be, excellent stewards of all resources provided to them. We all need to help them with this by ensuring they are prepared to manage any resources we might allocate to them, can adequately plan and project for their programs and services, and can effectively evaluate and report on their outcomes. If you are a board member, volunteer, donor, or employee of any nonprofit organization, please be analytical, businesslike, and tough when offering your support to any charitable organization.
The most successful organizations—those that will really deliver on their mission and will transform lives by their work—will never shy away from your requests for figures and information. They will proudly celebrate and report on their achievements, but will also immediately ask for your input when trying to avoid mistakes. Those that avoid this accountability and openness are organizations that should not receive your time, money, or energy.
Kelly White O’Neill is executive director of the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum. Send comments to the executive editor at rmiller
@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 8-15, 2012.