Narrow the Gap

The January-February 2000 issue’s theme of "Ethics and the Bottom Line" brought to mind the different standards of accountability for the business and the nonprofit sectors. We often hear today that nonprofits should operate more like a business. But it was in imitating the business world’s compensation packages that the nonprofit sector came under the increasing scrutiny that led to the resignation of the United Way national president a few years ago.

Thanks for bringing to our attention the efforts of some in the business world to measure their success by ethical standards. But isn’t it time that businesses are held more accountable for the grotesque inflation of executive compensation as nonprofit leadership has been? Maybe we will eventually see the gap in compensation narrowed to some extent, thanks to the policies and practices of those business leaders mentioned in the articles.

Thanks in any case for reporting on the struggles with faithfulness among some in the business community today.

Douglas Smith
Pomona, California