George Hostetter is one heck of a great reporter for the Fresno Bee.  Today he released a blog post about the former Met Museum that is really worth everyone’s time. You can read his blog post here. He had been covering The Met for some time and reading his thoughts on the demise of the museum was really interesting to me.

George, makes a strong case that the Fresno Metropolitan Museum collapse was somewhat like the collapse of a house of cards.  A house of cards while nice to look in its outer appearances,  is very unstable.

What was most striking to me in reading his articles over the past few months and his blog entry today, is that there seemed to be a common thread throughout the final five years of the Fresno Metropolitan Museums existence.  What seemed to be noticeably missing (especially in the final 18 months and now) is a sense of transparency.   I have wrote about this to some degree in a previous entry here.  In my opinion, there are more details we don’t now (may never know) about the closure of the Fresno Met than details we do know.  Frankly, that is too bad.  I am not arguing that more transparency would have saved the museum, it likely wouldn’t have.  A lack of transparency though from the Fresno Met could hurt cultural non-profits for years to come.

Now, I want to be clear.  My intention in this post is not to rehash the Fresno Met again..

I would however, like to encourage all non-profits to be more transparent  with our community.

I have the privilege of leading a non-profit in Fresno and one with a longer history than even the Fresno Met.  It is a amazing responsibility and one, I  do not take lightly.  I feel a heavy burden to out community as all leaders of non-profits should.  We as leaders, have been entrusted with organizations for public benefit, organizations that can change lives (and our community) for better or worse.

Authenticity and transparency within non-profits is not a new problem, not even in this community.   We have had these types of wake-up calls before.  Does Genesis ring any bells?  For the benefit of our community, all non-profits in our community should be extra careful to operate above reproach at all times.  Our ability to operate authentically and with full transparency will expose and hold accountable those organizations who are not striving to do the same.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) offer a great set of guidelines for all non-profits to live by.  The AFP “Ethical principles & Standards” are not perfect but an important piece for all non-profits to utilize.

I truly hope that no non-profit in the Fresno community would be compared to a house of cards ever again.  In my opinion, complete authenticity and transparency would take us a long way to that goal.