Advancement Academy
Ethics Scenarios: 7th September 2012
Scenarios © Joanna Motion, More Partnership
1. A contact in China introduces the University to a powerful new connection. A
major gift results. He then asks for a percentage of the gift. Would you agree?
2. A New York-based Trust is interested in endowing a curatorship at your
Museum of African Art. The Trust was established by the family of some noted
collectors. Discussions about the gift are well-advanced when questions are
raised by a third party about the provenance of some of the antiquities in the
family collection in New York. Have they been acquired by a respectable
process? Does this affect the proposed gift to your Museum?
3. The legacies officer of your institution has come to know well an old lady who
was a graduate of the university in its earliest days. She is lonely and your staff
member has become something of a lifeline for her. She has talked of making
a substantial bequest to the university in her will. When she dies, it transpires
that she has not in fact included the university in her will, but she has left
ZAR1m to the legacies officer personally. How do you manage this situation?
4. An alumnus wants to make a donation of ZAR 400,000. Your “due diligence”
reveals that he has made his money from the sale of pornography. Do you
accept the gift? What if it were ZAR 40m?
5.
Your university has an agreed policy that rules out accepting gifts from
tobacco manufacturers. You have an alumnus who is a Director of a company
whose interests include tobacco. He is prepared to make a personal gift to
endow a chair in international relations to be named after his father, a noted
diplomat. Does this count as “tobacco money”?
6. The University forms a partnership in a Central Asian country to deliver
Foundation education in science. However, the main local contact is suddenly
jailed on charges of fraud and the campus is closed down overnight. What
kinds of issues do you have to manage here?
7. One of your fundraisers asks for advice on a sensitive and confidential matter.
She has established a warm relationship with a prospective donor, and a
ZAR13m donation to her project is on the cards. However she is getting on so
well with him that she begins to see that marriage may be on the cards too.
What should you – and she – do?
8. The Woolf Report into the Gaddafi relationship at the London School of
Economics was very critical of accepting gifts from students. A number of
your students wish to launch a “graduating year gift”, benefiting student
facilities. Is this a problem?
9. The College receives the bequest of his house, in a desirable location, from a
former professor. In recent years he had been on bad terms with his surviving
children and he leaves them nothing in his will. They approach you saying that
they intend to contest the will. How do you proceed?
10. The wife of one of your donors has a rare form of cervical cancer. The stressed
and emotional donor offers to make a further gift provided his wife can take
part in the trial of a new treatment at your Cancer Institute. What do you do?
11. Your Social Sciences faculty is interested in running a conference on a topic
related to the Olympics. Seeking sponsorship from one of the official partners
seems a good idea. These include Coca-Cola, Dow Chemicals, McDonald’s and
Samsung. What considerations should you bear in mind as you explore the
possibilities?
12.
13. An alumnus who owns an office equipment business is willing to make a
£250,000 gift – provided the College agrees to use his firm as the supplier for
the Newham campus. He is willing to match the lowest bid that purchasing
might get from any other supplier. Is it OK to accept the gift? What if the gift
is £5m?
14. ?
15. The College finds itself pursued by sections of the media over “radical Islamic
influence” in the student body. Sensing anti-Semitism, a Jewish family trust
that has been a generous benefactor to the College wishes to take back a gift of
£250,000 for student support made in 2002. Can they have their money
back?
16. A major gift prospect contacts the Development Office from India because his
daughter has been allocated a room in the shabbiest and least convenient
College accommodation for her first year. The parent’s gift would endow a
scholarship or facilities that will benefit generations of future students. Is it
appropriate for the Development Office to intervene with the Accommodation
Office to get the student a better room?
17. You have a student from Moscow whose sister is enrolled at Cornell. The
parents advise you that they are in discussion with Cornell about a
considerable gift to the development of the University Library. In the interests
of being even-handed, they wish to discuss an equivalent gift to UCL. Their
resources, your Development Office research team believe, are enormous.
How do you proceed?
18. Naturally the College prides itself on the excellence of its academic standards.
A major donor who is also an alumna has a daughter who is bright but may be
borderline for admission to the medical school. Your chances of ongoing
major gifts from this source may be substantially affected by the decision
whether or not to admit the daughter. What do you do?
19. An academic from your Centre for Digital Humanities has friendly contact
with the government of Burma. In the aftermath of visits from William Hague
and Hillary Clinton, he wants to know if he may explore the possibility of
funding for the Centre? Where does the College stand on governmental gifts?
ENDS