AFP San Diego
Event Archive
Michael J. O’Leary Ethics Luncheon
Friday,  February 1, 2008
Sheraton San Diego Hotel, Mission Valley

Nonprofits, Ethics, and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Robert Donmoyer, Ph.D.
Professor of Leadership Studies Co-Director of the
Caster Family Center for Nonprofit Research
at the University of San Diego

At our monthly chapter lunch meeting, Dr. Donmoyer discussed the reasons for the growing concern about ethics and the drop in confidence in non-profits. He shared his ideas about the "fundamental attribution error" referring to the tendency to blame people rather than organizational factors for problems and the need to focus on influencing people directly rather than on changing organizational structures in the process of generating solutions.

For your reference, here is the AFP Code of Ethics (PDF format).

Erich Foeckler, Tessa Rigdon and Rachel Tolano

Doug Dawson, Pam Becker and Geoff Graham

Sharon LeeMaster, speaker Dr. Robert Donmoyer
and AFP San Diego Chapter President Edith Glassey