The latest story of employee abuse in the nonprofit world involves a large food bank in Northern California. Apparently the (now former) CEO sexually harassed and then fired the director of development.
From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
"According to the 33-page civil complaint filed Feb. 23 in Sonoma County Superior Court, the employee was the victim of sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, failure to act, retaliation and wrongful termination. It also accuses others within the organization of failing to prevent the discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, from occurring.”
Adding insult to injury, the board is claiming to not know what was going on, which the plaintiff disputes.
It may seem counter-intuitive but altruistic organizations can be magnets for those with narcissistic tendencies, which it sounds like this CEO may have.
It's also fairly common for development directors, who are usually women, to be abused in this manner, either by the org or its donors. Indeed, both of these types of sexual harassment happens at major animal welfare organizations such as the Human Society of the U.S. Who remembers this New York Times story from 2018 that resulted in the CEO Wayne Pacelle being removed from HSUS after years of allegations.
I hope the food bank victim gets some justice and the organization cleans house.
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Sadly, none of this is surprising. I'm curious about how much money is involved in charitable work, and public records show that CEO David Goodman was being paid more than $350,000 a year. Feeding the poor is big business. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/680121855/202300949349301430/full