In the United States, massive moral meltdowns, as seen in scandals such as the Enron crisis, have led to an outpouring of discussion about ethics in business. But what about ethics in the nonprofit sector, where some argue "doing the right thing" occupies a central position? In this audio lecture, sponsored by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Stanford Law Professor Deborah Rhode considers some of the temptations to which nonprofits have succumbed, resulting in the public's shaken trust in charities. She discusses the kinds of pressures that can get in the way of ethics—particularly in areas such as the use of funds—and influence peddling, and she suggests ways to ensure ethical behavior and accountability among nonprofit leaders.
Deborah L. Rhode is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the fields of legal ethics and gender, law, and public policy. An author of 20 books, including Women and Leadership and Moral Leadership, she is the most frequently cited scholar in legal ethics. She is the director of the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession, the former president of the Association of American Law Schools, the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, the founder and former director of Stanford’s Center on Ethics, and the former director of the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford. She also served as senior counsel to the minority members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary on presidential impeachment issues during the Clinton administration. Before joining the Stanford law faculty, Rhode was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
This free podcast is from our Stanford Social Innovation Review series.
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