Ethical Dilemmas in Business, NGO's and Politics

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This essay is an example of an all too often occurrence in the political realm. This is the story of a successful businesswoman from humble beginnings who made some unfortunate choices. Ramona Lopez started off fresh from college and developed a small business, and later became a well-know business-woman. She was also known as philanthropist and as donated her time and money to “the shelter for battered women and the community fund.” The shelter even “named its daycare center The Lopez Center to recognize the donation that funded the building” (Nadler, 2011). As with anything, with success, comes money, with money comes problems. The story indicates that as Ramona’s business started to grow she needed to expand her business and unfortunately that saw some pushback from the community. To help alleviate the situation she got in contact with the local mayor in order to as the author of the story puts it “expedite the planning commission hearing and get council approval” (Nadler, 2011) . This is where the story gets complicated, after getting to know the mayor the author mentions “Mayor Janice Noonan was a bit “star struck” by this savvy businesswoman, and was eager to please her. Ramona mentioned her admiration for the mayor and offered to donate to her upcoming re-election campaign and publicly endorse her. In addition to her personal check of $10,000, she gathered $1,000 checks from 25 of her top employees, who were later reimbursed, in violations of state law” (Nadler, 2011). This action is what got Ramona in trouble. The act of reimbursing her employees is where she crossed the line and committed a crime by violating state law. The question now remains, did she willfully violate the law to attempt to gain political fav...

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...roversial Donations [web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.nonprofitlawblog.com/donation-policy-controversial-donations/
Reyes-Fournier, P. (n.d.) Fundraising Guidelines for Nonprofits. Retrieved from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/fundraising-guidelines-nonprofits-9040.html#
(2008). The importance of a gift acceptance policy. PJ Philanthropy Journal, Retrieved from http://www.philanthropyjournal.org/resources/fundraisinggiving/importance-gift-acceptance-policy
Common Cause.(n.d.) Pay-to-Play. Retrieved from http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4923163
Nadler. J. (2011, December 13). When Is A Contribution A Bribe? Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/r/ethics-center/ethicsblog/herhonor/11811/When-Is-A-Contribution-A-Bribe?
Federal Election Commision (2014, April) Citizens Guide,. Retrieved from http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml

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