Righteous Indignation

The glow of righteous indignation

In a way, it was so darn satisfying: the wave of condemnation heaped upon those Seattle-area hospital systems for allowing large donors to jump to the front of the Covid vaccination line as way of thanking them for their past support.

As a fundraiser who has made his share of boneheaded decisions over his storied career in the service of his employers, I could both wince at the news and muster empathy for my peers in the line of fire.

Don’t get me wrong. This was unquestionably a boneheaded move of epic proportions. And, by now, no one knows that better than the development folks who said at some meeting, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea to thank our most loyal donors….”

But is taking our high horses of righteous indignation out for a well-deserved romp the only thing to be gained from this saga?

As I understand it, the hospital systems recruited these donors to be volunteers to help with the “dry run” of the vaccine administration process, which included giving them with an early shot (no word about who among this group would qualify for the vaccine anyway because of their age or life circumstances).

Albeit ill advised, it was not a quid-pro-quo situation (as far as I’ve been able to tell, no one “bought” a vaccine in exchange for a specific donation). It was a cultivation move.

Cultivation is one of the pillars of the development process. It means doing nice things for the people that help fund our missions. The greater the funds, the nicer the things. EVERYONE in the development field does it.

And now might be a good time to look at what we do, why we do it, and the implications of it all. To wit:

• Do we arrange special access to the Presidents and CEOS of our institutions at fancy cocktail parties to the people who we feel could offer the best insights and perspectives, or to those who give at the President’s Circle level?
• Do D-1 Powerhouse football programs reserve the best seats for disadvantaged families whose sons help lead the team to victory or to their most generous boosters?
• When a performing arts group brings a celebrity into town, do they reserve a meet-and-greet time to their “participation donors?”

To be sure, the Seattle hospitals crossed a line.

But I hope the only lesson we learn from their transgression isn’t that people with lots of money get things that people with little money don’t.

Otherwise, it will indeed be a missed opportunity for some badly needed introspection on the lessons of privilege, wealth and access, and how we blindly go about leveraging those things to do our work.