What's Your Red Flag? Reputational Risk and Philanthropic Due Diligence Best Practices

Is your organization concerned about reputational or legal risk in engaging or accepting gifts from potential donors? Is your organization looking to establish philanthropic due diligence processes and procedures? This session will discuss the fundamentals of philanthropic due diligence, outline industry best practices, discuss various case studies, and highlight available resources for prospect development professionals.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will receive an overview of philanthropic due diligence strategies and learn about emerging best practices.
Attendees will have an opportunity to discuss various case studies relating to philanthropic due diligence that can be applied at their organization.

Gareth Griffin

Senior Director of Prospect Development

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Gareth Griffin is the Senior Director of Prospect Development at MIT, where he leads the institute's prospect research, prospect management, philanthropic due diligence, and prospect data integrity programs. Prior to heading back east, he was the Senior Director of Prospect Management & Analytics at Santa Clara University and Assistant Director of Prospect Management at UC Berkeley. Before heading west to California, he served as a Prospect Research Analyst at Clemson University. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Apra Foundation and was previously the Chair of Apra’s Ethics & Compliance Committee.

Charles Latham

Senior Research Analyst, Principal Gifts

Duke University

Currently the Senior Research Analyst specializing in Principal Gifts ($10M+ capacity) for Duke Health Development and Alumni Affairs, I have been a prospect researcher for nearly two decades, having started my career at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, PA in 2007. I joined Duke Health in 2014. In 2021, working directly with the Vice President, I developed a presentation on reputational risk and due diligence in response to incidents at peer and other institutions, and am currently collaborating with our Stewardship team and Duke University’s development team to craft a robust program for identifying “red flags” and protecting the reputation of Duke Health. I received my B.A. in English w/Cultural and Community Studies with honors from the University of Sussex in Brighton, E. Sussex, UK. I reside in Durham, NC and like to play music in my free time and to practice target archery with my English longbow.