Read They Told Me Not to Take that Job: Tumult, Betrayal, Heroics, and the Transformation of Lincoln Center for Free Online Page A

customers, first and foremost.
    All around this nation, nonprofit organizations, private institutions devoted to the public good, also struggle with the challenges of governance, the fast-changing marketplace, government relations, and leadership. The lessons I learned at Lincoln Center might be valuable not only to those who labor in the country’s fast-growing, nonprofit third sector, but also to those employed by the government or in the private sector.
    On January 19, 2012, a Gallup study revealed that Americans’ satisfaction with the size and power of the federal government was at a record low of 29 percent. Their satisfaction with the size and influence of major corporations remained near an all-time low of 30 percent. Gallup concluded its report: “The results suggest that it’s a case of ‘pick your poison’ in the political arena when it comes to big business and big government—Americans are quite dissatisfied with the size, power and influence of both.” 5
    This lack of confidence is widespread, and it characterizes the prevailing attitude of Americans. Citizens are losing trust in the US Senate, the House of Representatives, the presidency, labor unions, the media, religious organizations, and government as a whole. A Pew Research Center poll taken in 2012 confirmed the Gallup study. 6
    When people lose faith in key institutions, they are less able to solve common problems. As a candidate to run on the Republican ticket for president in 2012, Jon Hunstman characterized our key national challenge as a “trust deficit.” It is serious and it is corrosive, he claimed.
    The Edelman Trust Barometer, administered for fourteen consecutive years, also found that faith in government and business is in a very severe downward trend. According to this study, published on January 19, 2012, government suffered the deepest trust decline in the history of the poll, and business was not far behind in the public’s loss of confidence. 7
    By comparison, faith in nongovernment organizations has held up reasonably well. But that level of credibility and confidence canbe squandered easily. Maintaining public approval is a constant challenge and requires high-quality governance and management. The public’s trust must be earned every day. If proof were needed, for decades the US Supreme Court and houses of worship were exceptions to the sweeping tide of negativism depicted in well-regarded opinion surveys. This is no longer the case.
    When government is not trusted, voter participation rates fall. Democracy languishes. Resistance to corrective action rises.
    When business is distrusted, the demand for regulation escalates, and the expressed needs of corporations for lower taxation and trade liberalization fall on deaf ears. 8
    And when nonprofits falter, when confidence in them erodes, charitable contributions plummet, and faith in the voluntary sector diminishes.
    The active consent of the governed, shareholder and customer satisfaction, and nonprofits that discharge their fiduciary responsibilities with care: these are the fundamental building blocks of a vibrant governmental sector; a healthy free enterprise economy; and an energetic, creative, and highly emulated nonprofit sector.
    The disciplined reporting and commentary of journalists plays a critical role in holding all three sectors accountable. After all, they consist of institutions that are supported by the public. They are dependent on citizen, client, consumer, investor, and donor approval. The media are the independent source of information on which all of these constituencies depend to reach sound judgments.
    Selected board chairs, trustees, and executives are criticized in these pages because those who enjoy a precious public trust should be called to account for acts of brazen omission or commission that occur on their watch. No one was held accountable by President George W. Bush for the intelligence failures that led to 9/11, or for the disaster that