Ethical Reasoning Vignette 2012

Ms. Tang is the Chief Executive Officer of SUPPORT, a non-profit organization whose mission
is to raise funds from the public so that it can help the needy. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Tang
had worked as a private fund manager for 15 years, and had been an active volunteer of
SUPPORT. In just a brief span of four years under Ms. Tang's leadership, SUPPORT's annual
charity donations grew from S$12 million to $100 million. This was achieved primarily from new
fundraising strategies that Ms. Tang had implemented and the support from Ms. Tangs son, an
aspiring singer who volunteers by singing at SUPPORTs grand charitable events. This has
helped raise the visibility and profile of SUPPORT. As a result, SUPPORT was able to expand its
reach to help more needy individuals. For example, the number of individuals who received help
from SUPPORT increased from 1% to 4% of the population in Singapore, and the average annual
amount of money dispensed to help the needy increased from S$150 to S$300 per person.

The success of SUPPPORT was possible due to Ms. Tangs investment skills and successful
fundraising events. Ms. Tang had used her skills as a former fund manager to secretly invest a
portion of the donations that SUPPORT had received into the stock market. Over the past four
years, most of the investments that Ms. Tang had made were profitable, with an average of a 40%
return on investment. Ms. Tang then drew upon this capital gain to implement costly fundraising
activities. This included Ms. Tang taking luxury overseas trips (e.g., flying first class and staying
in 5-star hotels) to attend major conference and learn about new ways of fundraising, using the
money to provide promotion for her sons singing endeavors (including his singing at
SUPPORTs charitable events), and refurbishing SUPPORTs office at a cost of S$400,000 to
accommodate visits by potential wealthy donors.

Question:
Identify the ethical issue at stake regarding Ms. Tangs actions. Pinpoint the relevant
stakeholders and how these stakeholders are affected. If you became one of SUPPORTs
directors, what do you think should be done?