Entrusted

David H. Smith

Description

A meditation on the moral dimensions of trusteeship.

"Entrusted provides a much needed contribution to the literature on ethics in the healthcare arena." —Health Progress

"A splendid and invaluable book, one every trustee with an active conscience would want to read and one every trustee with a dormant conscience ought to read." —Richard Chait, Center for Higher Education Governance and Leadership

" . . . thoughtful essays on the morality, obligations, practice, and virtues of trusteeship. . . . Smith presents intriguing arguments for governance grounded in a broader sense of organizational and public stewardship." —ARNOVA News

"[Smith's] contribution breaks some new and difficult ground by helping us to think beyond the routine and mundane dimensions of trusteeship." —Academe

" . . . essential reading for trustees." —Ethics

"Entrusted should be required reading for trustees of any not-for-profit." —Advancing Philanthropy

Preface

Part I: Why Trustees?
1. The Moral Core of Trusteeship
2. Two Major Objections
3. An Illustration: Trustees and Football

Part II: Specifying Vocation amid Controversy
4. When in Doubt: Problems of Specification
5. Conflicting Basic Duties

Part III: Duty and Character
6. Processes and Procedures
7. The Virtues of a Trustee

Notes
Index

Sujets

• Social Science
• Charities
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Charity
• Charitable organization
• Philanthropy
• Social sciences
• Education
• Philantropy

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 mai 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253113412
• Langue: English

Extrait

ENTRUSTED
PHILANTHROPIC STUDIES
Robert L. Payton and Dwight F. Burlingame
General editors
ENTRUSTED
The Moral Responsibilities of Trusteeship
David H. Smith
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
© 1995 by David H. Smith All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form orby any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying andrecording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publisher. The Associationof American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissionsconstitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimumrequirements of American National Standard for InformationSciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, David H., date
   Entrusted : the moral responsibilities of trusteeship / David H.Smith.
            p. cm.—(Philanthropic studies)
       Includes index.
       ISBN 0-253-35331-9
   1. Trusts and trustees—United States. 2. Endowments—United States. 3. Charitable uses, trusts, and foundations—United States. 4. Nonprofit organizations—United States. I. Title. II. Series. HV97.A3S63    1995
   361.7’632—dc20 94-37965
1 2 3 4 5 00 99 98 97 96 95
For Alexandra Zachary Jacob Who made being entrusted a joy
CONTENTS
Preface
Part I: Why Trustees?
1. The Moral Core of Trusteeship
2. Two Major Objections
3. An Illustration: Trustees and Football
Part II: Specifying Vocation amid Controversy
4. When in Doubt: Problems of Specification
5. Conflicting Basic Duties
Part III: Duty and Character
6. Processes and Procedures
7. The Virtues of a Trustee
Notes
Index
PREFACE
F OR MORE THAN ten years I served on the board of Hospice ofBloomington, a small nonprofit organization in my hometown.During parts of that period, I invested a lot of time in the organization.Like many others, I was involved because I was committedto what hospice stood for, but I found that a very large fraction ofmy attention was focused on practical concerns: fund-raising, staffing,physical facilities. I tell part of the story of Hospice of Bloomingtonin chapter 6 of this book.
The experience of working with hospice started me thinking—notjust about hospice but about the governance of nonprofit organizationsin general and about the trustee mode of governance inparticular. A series of questions arose: Is governance by a board theway we should organize things? What are the major duties of personswho take on a trustee’s role? Can we make any generalizationsabout the sorts of problems that trustees face? How should trusteesbe related to the rest of the organization? What are the prime virtuesof a trustee?
This book represents my first attempt to comment on these questions.I intend it mainly for persons I think of as reflective trustees—peoplewho find themselves entrusted with a major responsibilityand who want a conversation partner as they wonder how bestto discharge it. Such a reader should not turn to the book for a recipeabout how to run a meeting, recruit board members, or balance thebudget. Several people more experienced than I have written helpfullyabout those very important issues. I want to step back from theimmediate questions to offer some ideas and raise some issues thatmay put trusteeship into perspective. In fact, the main idea of thebook is that trustees should be reflective, that the board shouldbe a community of inquiry, more precisely, a community of interpretation.
But I admit that I have a secondary agenda, for the trustee’s historicallyand currently important role has been little studied by moralists,philosophers, or theologians. The classic issues of political philosophyare the legitimacy and limits of state authority; morerecently, professional ethics has focused attention on the responsibilitiesof physicians, nurses, journalists, and managers. Moral issuesassociated with nonprofit governance have fallen into the cracks. Iwill be glad if this book serves to suggest the need for academicallysophisticated discussions of the moral parameters of trusteeship,studies that will go beyond and improve on this attempt.
I begin the book by explaining what I think the central moralresponsibilities of a trustee are. I offer the best defense I can againstwhat I think of as the most serious criticism of trustee power: thatit is paternalistic, denying to citizens power they should exercisemore directly. In chapter 2 I continue the discussion of the morallegitimacy of trusteeship, responding to two important objectionsto trustee governance. The first section concludes with an illustrationof what we see when trustee governance is looked at using thecategories I propose.
In Part II , I comment on some of the problems that confronttrustees as they focus their attention on organizational vocation,identity, or mission. One kind of problem that arises as a board triesto define its purpose and chart its course with reference to other organizationsis a result of vagueness and uncertainty; it is a problemof doubt. Another kind of problem involves a crisp conflict betweentwo values that are essential to the organization’s life; the boardconfronts a dilemma. This kind of problem, which has been calledthe problem of perplexity, 1 is both harder and easier to resolve thanis a problem of doubt.
Finally, in the last portion of the book, I illustrate what might besaid about purpose, taking higher education as my paradigm case. Ialso talk about the board’s special relationship to the rest of the organizationand the main virtues of good trustees.
In the course of this discussion, I consider a series of cases or situationsin which trustees faced hard choices. These cases include problems about the tenure of a controversial theologian at theCatholic University of America and issues faced by hospital trusteesat the University of Chicago Hospital and by the boards of Hospiceof Bloomington and the United Way of Monroe County. I also discusssome of the problems concerning the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibitat the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
I have neither the space nor the competence to discuss any oneof these issues—let alone all of them—thoroughly. Nor have I singledout these events because they seem to me to be unusually important abuses of trustee responsibility. To the contrary—in all ofthem trustees have taken their responsibilities seriously, and in someof them the trustees’ actions seem to me to have been exemplaryfrom beginning to end.
I have singled out these histories because information about themwas accessible and because the study of actual practice is essentialif we want to learn more about trusteeship in any detail. To learnmore about the moral parameters of trusteeship, we must studysome things that trustees have done. In the final section I fill in someimportant blanks. I specify three general duties that the board hasto the organization for which it is responsible: duties of reasonablesupport, of standing for justice, and of subordinating institutionalself-preservation to mission. I then argue that discussion of missionis inevitably a matter of ethics and morality; this fact has implicationsfor the qualities necessary in board members. Finally, I presenta quick set of implications of the argument of the book and offersome practical suggestions for trustees.
For a short book, this one has been a long time in the making,and the debts I have accumulated are unusually extensive. The firstand greatest debt is to the Lilly Endowment. With the support ofthen Senior Vice President Robert W. Lynn I committed myself towrite this book in 1988. When Craig Dykstra replaced Bob Lynn asVice President for Religion at Lilly, he commiserated, cajoled, andawaited the product with remarkable patience. I remain grateful for that patience and to the Endowment for supporting me as I workedinto new territory. Others will have to assess the wisdom of the investment.
At about the time that I began this book, I was invited to join theNational Seminar on Trusteeship, a wonderful group of scholars ofand consultants to trustees, convened by Richard Chait and MiriamWood. The National Seminar provided me with an invaluable supportcommunity, especially early in the project. Later I became amember of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy’s Seminaron Governance of Nonprofit Organizations. That more classicallyacademic group did a splendid job of pulling up my socks, andinto the bargain introduced me to issues and scholars with whichand with whom I hope to be involved for the rest of my professionallife. Members of both seminars patiently endured and criticizedearly versions of part of Part I of this book, and it is much betteras a result. I was particularly helped by comments by Peter DobkinHall offered at a meeting of the Seminar on Nonprofit Governance.
The first heavy research for the book was done in the spring of1990. I shall always be grateful to the Indiana University Institutefor Advanced Study for naming me a Fellow and providing an officehideaway, a relaxed and collegial environment, and the kind of warmand gracious support for which its director, Henry H. H. Remak, isrightly renowned. Without that help, at that time, the project wouldnever have been completed.
My own experience as a trustee is limited, but I tho