Dance Blue-- As A Fundraiser

Blog Post #14

Topic: The Responsibility of the Fundraisers

   People are often willing to give at least something to large fundraisers whether it be Dance Blue of something else.  However, people have to trust that whoever is in charge of the fundraiser is funneling the money to the right places and not skimming more off the top than is necessary for operating costs.  There have been one too many charities that have gotten in trouble for diverting quite a bit of their donations to unjust causes, often in to individual's personal pockets.  A book written by Albert Anderson in the EBSCOHOST database discusses the ethics of running a fundraiser.

   The beginning of Anderson's book opens with a quote from Aristotle that reads "To give away money is an easy matter, and in any man's power. But to decide to whom to give it, and how large, and when, and for what purpose is neither in every person's power
nor an easy matter."  Since Dance Blue is starting to generator more and more money every year, the committee members must decide where the money should go.   In the early days of the marathon this was probably a fairly easy decision to makes, but now that they are raising amounts into the millions, the decision of where it should go becomes much more complex.

   As mentioned in my previous blog, a good question to ask would be where does they money from Dance Blue go?  Does one single organization benefit from it, or are there multiple organizations? Do they have to fight others to get a "spot," or is it predetermined.  A documentary would be a good way to answer theses questions.

 I think it's crazy how a relatively small group of individuals controls that much money and decides where it goes.  Another question to further research is that since Dance Blue is growing, are their operating costs increasing as well? And if so, at what rate are they increasing?

--Stephen Ritchie

Citation:
Anderson, Albert. Ethics For Fundraisers. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 1996. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 9 Oct. 2014.