NPO Headlines 08.08.23
Catholic Charities in crisis has a new leader ... Americans for Public Trust naming compromised nonprofits ... and another board can't manage its budget
1. Philanthropy Insider Takes the Helm at Crisis Moment for Catholic Charities
As of August 23, Catholic Charities will have a new leader. Catholic Charities USA made the announcement on July 25, calling Kerry Alys Robinson “a renowned expert in Catholic leadership and philanthropy.”
In her early career, Robinson was a fundraiser for Yale, but most of her experience has been with grantmaking foundations and Leadership Roundtable, an elite, Catholic non-profit offering leadership training and services.
Catholic Charities USA is the headquarters for 167 local Catholic Charities organizations nationwide. More than half of the organization’s $4.7B annual revenue (as of 2010) comes from the federal government.
Catholic Charities will be Robinson’s first stint running an organization that delivers services directly to the poor. She did, however, serve for 15 years on the national committee for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ controversial Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
To help complete the picture, Robinson’s husband is Michael Cappello, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Microbial Diseases, Yale Institute of Global Health.
Robinson is taking over Catholic Charities USA from Sister Donna Markham OP, PhD, who announced in September she would be retiring.
Robinson’s own leadership will soon be tested. She is assuming command of the giant nonprofit when it is undergoing intense scrutiny from all sides.
WATCH FOR MORE ON THOSE PRESSURES ON THURSDAY … State attorneys general investigation … revocation of tax exempt status in Wisconsin … Deposit of Faith Coalition
2. Watchdog Group Reveals Foreign National Interfering with Elections Via NPOs
A July report from Americans for Public Trust (AFT) is showing how Swiss billionaire Harsjörg Wyss is using American nonprofits to influence elections.
AFT claims Wyss anonymously contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to 501(c)4 social welfare organizations which then makes grants to a network of progressive organizations.
The report identifies eight key organizations backed by Wyss:
· 1630 Fund
· New Venture Fund
· Fund for a Better Future
· The Center for American Progress
· The League of Conservation Voters
· Indivisible
· National Redistricting Action Fund
· Planned Parenthood
AFT recommends “foreign nationals should be prohibited from contributing to these conduits for electoral advocacy, just as they are prohibited from contributing to U. S. political campaigns.”
According to Fox News, Republicans are working on legislation to do just that.
Also in July, Trust But Verify reported on Wyss’s involvement in Michigan politics.
· Goliath Funders Coming for Your State
3. Baptist Board Hid Overspending for Decades
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, is teetering on the financial brink.
In June the institution’s board of trustees announced a $140 deficit that had been building over twenty years. While most of the blame has been put on former President Adam Greenway who resigned in the fall of 2022, former board member Aaron Sligar, who resigned in June, is saying fellow board members failed to accept their responsibility for what happened.
Sligar had called for a forensic audit of the seminary’s finances, but the board rebuffed his suggestion.
Noting the importance of trust, Sligar says Southwestern’s financial crisis puts the SBC’s relationships with individual churches and their donations at risk. He also claims the board’s executive committee failed to disclose key information about the school’s finances, allegations board officials deny.
When seminary trustees announced the deficit, they also released 20 years of financial audits showing a longstanding pattern of unsupervised overspending.
Editorial note: Board members have a duty of care; they can be found negligent if they are not responsibly overseeing an organization’s finances.