High-Profile Donor and Regulatory Claims Nonprofit organizations can take lessons from high-profile donor and regulatory lawsuits.


“Donors are acting just like investors. Donors are watching their money.”


Beth Goldberg, Zurich


Recent lawsuits illustrate some of the risks facing nonprofit organizations. A jury awarded the singer Garth Brooks a $1 million judgment against a nonprofit hospital in Oklahoma. The jury agreed with Brooks that the hospital improperly allocated the $500,000 that he had donated with the understanding that it would be used to name a health center for his mother. In another case that is still ongoing, the Oklahoma attorney general launched an investigation into past practices of the anti-hunger charity Feed the Children. In the event of a government investigation like this one, nonprofits, when issued subpoenas, may have to incur expenses related to document production.


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