Trent Stamp's Take
The president of Charity Navigator gives an insider's perspective to the inspiring, intriguing, and sometimes idiotic inner workings of the world of non-profits and charities.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Another United Way Scandal?
You may remember that the United Way of New York City suffered through a scandal last year, when it was revealed that its former leader, Ralph Dickerson Jr., used over $200K of donor money for his own use, including $50,000 alone on his dry cleaning. And that memory may cause you to, like me, raise your eyebrows a tad over the announcement that Mr. Dickerson's successor, Lawrence Mandell, will suddenly retire this summer.
Mr. Mandell's retirement may be, as he states, a chance for him to spend more time with his family.
But, as the New York Times excellently points out, there may also be a bit more to the story.
According to the Times, Mr. Mandell was "committed to a longer tenure." However, according to employees at the United Way, the board "had become concerned that Mr. Mandell was failing to follow procedures involving large grant approval." In recent weeks, an internal investigation into the group's handling of assets had been undertaken. This included interviews with staff and the confiscation of computer hard drives (this is always a really bad sign, at least it is when I'm watching Law & Order), and culminated last week in a meeting between the board and Mr. Mandell, at which Mr. Mandell "did a lot of screaming and yelling."
And then he resigned. "Suddenly."
If all of these things happened under my watch, I'd probably want to spend more time with my family too.
Labels: dry cleaning, Lawrence Mandell, Ralph Dickerson, United Way
posted by Trent Stamp at 4:32 PM
2 Comments:
Anonymous said...
I'm afraid this same thing may be happening at the Fox Valley United Way in Aurora, IL. This United Way, according to their website has taken in over 2.6 million dollars; though that amount appears to be debatable.
Here is the address of an interesting local blog (
www.openlineblog.com, under "What's Going On At The United Way?" from 3/27/07)- be sure to check out the audit at
www.fvunitedway.org for 2004/2005. This audit took over a year for them to produce, with the audit for 2003/2004 making its first debut simultaneously after 2 years in the making. The audit for the year ending June 30, 2006 has yet to be produced. The expenses of this organization for the 2004/2005 year came close to tripling in 1 year (the year she apparently took over as E.D.). The year prior fell under a different E.D.'s watch, but Ms. Stull was serving as Financial Director at the time, and in charge of all accounting.
Many agencies appear to have been unpaid according to the blog and the character of its ex-E.D. is under heavy fire from many. She apparently resigned under some degree of suspicion after just 18 months as E.D., though she has apparently worked for the UW for 7 or 8 years. The original press release stated that she left of her own accord to pursue other opportunities. An article appearing in the local Beacon News now states that she left for "personal reasons". Interesting to note is that she is actually still employed there as a consultant or contractor of some sort - ? Also of interest is that the Mayor has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Way, while serving on its board.
After reviewing the blog and the audit, I am interested to hear any feedback you may have; and, would like to know that with a non-governmental organization such as this, who investigates these sort of things?
8:25 PM
Anonymous said...
One minor clarification - the money being funneled to the FVUW by the Mayor is taxpayer money, not his own.