By Tracy Dingmann
Maybe we’re just a little sensitive about this, but a headline for a Journal editorial from July 22 contains a misplaced apostrophe that may or may not change the meaning of the piece.
“State Needs to Step Up Nonprofits’ Oversight” is the title of an editorial on Empowering Our Communities, a Sandoval County nonprofit that allegedly dissolved recently with some $180,000 in debt and some clients in the lurch. The charity was sent up to collect donations for Army Spec. Erik Schei, who was injured in Iraq. The editorial speculates that someone in state government “was asleep at the switch as this train wreck was approaching.”
But after comparing the editorial to the headline, seems to me that the apostrophe is misplaced. In the piece, the Journal only details irregularities at exactly one nonprofit – Empowering Our Communities. So why does the headline make it seem that ALL nonprofits require more oversight?
Just wondering.
Not being oversensitive at all. Good job calling them out.
A sharp-eyed reader notes that the charity in question was a pre-existing group that agreed to administer the funds collected for Schei. Thanks for the clarification!
Thanks for the feedback, Sarah K. We in the nonprofit sector are wary – and weary.