Remember when the Atlanta Journal–Constitution published a pathbreaking series on racial discrimination in awarding home mortgages? The Color of Money won a Pulitzer1 and put juice into community-based organizations, academics, and newspapers uncovering patterns of racial discrimination—or redlining—in bank mortgage and home improvement lending practices. Just as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires banks to report on their mortgages and loans, should philanthropic redlining in U.S. philanthropy be remedied by a mandatory reporting regime?

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We should have expected it, but the Congressional hearing on egregious fundraising practices among veterans organizations and the unusual “nonprofit entrepreneurs” running a couple of them reminded us of a slight problem of nonprofit sector amnesia. The Cohen Report has been monitoring this issue of abusing veterans through despicable charities for some time now.

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As this piece is being written, the Dow has dropped from a high of more than 14,000 in July of 2007 to the current low of roughly 12,600 in anticipation of a recession. The nation’s subprime mortgage industry collapse, epitomized by the bargain basement acquisition of the nation’s largest subprime lender, Countrywide, by Bank of America, hasn’t helped.

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A former Legal Services attorney, California Congressman Xavier Becerra is the only Latino on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee. But it is his distinctive voice and perspective, not his ethnicity, that has vaulted him to a position of visibility on issues of charity and philanthropy.

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Editors’ Note: Readers should be aware that as this article was going to press the death of Kenneth Lay was announced. This adds another complex wrinkle to the case, while the issues raised by the article remain the same.

The Enron Mega - Scandal reached its climax with the convictions of Kenneth Lay on six counts and Jeffrey Skilling on 19 counts, but these dealt only with the business transgressions —the criminals’ (we can call them that now) lesser known “charity” manipulations escaped most public attention. The media has referred periodically to the “philanthropy” of Ken Lay and other principals, signifying a positive balance on the other side of the ledger—some good works to offset the phenomenal harm resulting from their bad behavior.

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