ABSTRACT
Phase I — Situation You are a board member of a non-profit dedicated to the goal of spurring conversation about restoring Christian principles in Washington. Through the media, you discover allegations that your charity organization, which is a 501(c)(3), is paying money to your founder’s for-profit business. Your charity, founded by Newt Gingrich, is alleged to have paid Gingrich’s for-profit company $200,000 over two years. Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) is a non-profit that has paid full price for Gingrich’s books and DVDs. This non-profit is one of the ways that presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has stayed in the public eye. While out of office, Gingrich has become rich. He has purchased a $1 million house in the suburbs of Washington, secured a $500,000 line of credit from Tiffany’s, and, most recently, went on a two-week luxury cruise. ReAL paid Gingrich Communications $200,000 a year as compensation for Rick Tyler, the executive director of ReAL and Gingrich’s spokesman. While Gingrich’s name and face were splashed all over ReAL’s materials, Gingrich did not have a seat on the board. That meant Gingrich
did not have to disclose payments made to his consulting firm by the non-profit. Tyler, who spent 20 hours a week working for the non-profit, said he never asked Gingrich to join the board because he did not want to take up any more of Gingrich’s time. Before Tyler quit the board, he said that ReAL did not pay for political activity and did nothing to promote anyone’s political career (Reeve, 2011).
