Playing Favourites with Vaccines

The nonprofit industry is made up of people who care passionately, putting people before profit.

Unlike government and other influential decision-makers who respond to the changing requests of the people they serve, the nonprofit industry upholds their organization’s mission unwaveringly.

This past week some headlines have read “Who can get the COVID vaccine in Florida? Hint: It helps if you have donated to a hospital” and “Playing favorites? Hospital boards, donors get COVID shots.”

It is easy to do the right thing when times are comfortable, but when stakes are raised, when we begin to struggle, our judgement can become marred.

This is not a time to look down on other organizations with righteous judgment, rather examine our own governance and policies to ensure that we are immune (pun intended) to short-sighted or knee-jerk decision-making.

I am reminded of a great quote in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre: “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”

It is time to ensure your organization can stand up to the rigour of its mission statement, of putting people before profit, because it is actually our job to do so.