As I said earlier, most of the questions regarding the finances of the organisation come from people who have no understanding of the costs involved with running large company, the usual "I can get hosting for $100, why can't you" type stuff and can be dealt with by having a nice big website detailing everything that's done, what everybody does and so on.
If it's just idle speculations, I personally wouldn't dignify their accusations with any response at all. If you feel you have to, respond with nothing more than a link to the audit details. If it's a genuine concern, it's something that should be dealt with in an open and detailed manner. Shareholders get to grill their companies bosses at AGMs and such, it's something that the board needs to expect and deal with in as clear and friendly a manner as possible, no matter how absurd the allegation. An Annual Report type thing, available as a PDF file might not be a bad idea either. Lots of photos and rambling text about all the brilliant stuff at the front, all the numbers at the back.
On 12/02/2008, Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Sue Reed wrote:
----- Original Message ---- From: Florence Devouard Anthere9@yahoo.com
Yeah, so those were my thoughts on the audit. Anyone else?
I'd love to hear someone say something along those lines
"Thank you to the staff and board to have succeeded to have the Foundation audited for the 4th time"
There are over 200 000 000 people reading Wikipedia everyday. It would be very cool even ONE says "thank you". It would go a long way to keep us working.
Something like
"for every criticism you voice, provide a thank you on another point"
Florence, I found your statement here to be really tacky and
inappropriate and your follow-up comment to be even more tacky. You're the Chair of a multi-million dollar foundation. Frankly, the fact that your volunteers care enough to actually scrutinize the Foundation reports in the way they do should show they care. Secondly, every donation that's made ... whether it's $5 from a college student or a large grant, but especially the $5 from the college student, is a thank you that says "we think you're doing a good job ... please keep it up." I work for a non-profit and know how difficult it is to get each and every donation. I'm pleased as punch with every donation we bring in, and I can't even imagine our CEO or even or VP of Fund Development going to one of our volunteers or donors who a
sked a question about our financial statement and making a comment like
yours.
Sue Anne sreed1234@yahoo.com
Right. Help me improve my behavior then.
When some board members of your organization are publicly accused to misuse the donors money to promote their own business, how do they answer ?
Thanks
Ant
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