Thank you, members and donors, for your hundreds of emails and for visiting nrapresident.com. While there were various themes in your emails, many asked essentially the same question: “How do we know the past will not repeat itself?”
As this is a crucial question for rebuilding accountability, transparency and trust, I want to address it here.
First, I want to emphasize that the staff involved in the wrongdoing are no longer with us. Additionally, the Board of Directors members who were involved are either no longer on the Board or have been removed from their committee roles. The Board’s Ethics Committee is now reviewing their past actions for potential next steps.
Most importantly for the long term, NRA has implemented a comprehensive set of new policies and procedures, accompanied by mandatory training. Compliance is now deeply embedded in the DNA of every officer, director and staff member. Additionally, NRA’s whistleblower hotlines are now managed by a third party to ensure anonymous and confidential reporting without fear of retribution. For access, call 888-NRA-3603 or visit nraintegrityline.org.
Compliance oversight is now handled by the Board’s Chief Compliance Officer, who reports directly to the Board of Directors’ Audit Committee. Additionally, the Board’s Audit Committee is now elected by the general Board rather than appointed by the Board leadership, which was previously controlled by the old NRA leadership.
£All officers, Board members and staff must attend in-person and online compliance training. This also consists of training on New York non-profit law that requires all Board members to follow a Duty of Care, Loyalty and Obedience and a fiduciary duty to the association. Here’s what that means in plain language.
The Duty of Care requires that a director perform his or her duties with the care that an ordinarily prudent person would exercise in a similar position under comparable circumstances. A director must be diligent and informed and should exercise honest and unbiased business judgment. The “business-judgment rule” generally states that decisions must be made in good faith, without a conflict of interest, based on reasonably gathered information and with a rational belief that the decision is in the best interest of the association.
The Duty of Loyalty requires that a director act in good faith and in the best interests of the corporation, ensuring that personal interests do not take precedence over those of the corporation. Duty of loyalty mainly relates to conflicts of interest, corporate opportunities and confidentiality issues.
The Duty of Obedience requires that a director act in accordance with the organization’s goals and ensure the mission is carried out. Diverting corporate resources away from the NRA’s mission—regardless of how noble the purpose—may constitute a breach of the duty of obedience.
All Board members and staff must complete a Conflict of Interest and Related Party Transaction questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire is to disclose information for assessing potential conflicts of interest and related party transactions.
During the 2024 Fall Board meeting, the NRA Board voted on a pledge to members called a “Statement of Corporate Ethics.” Here is a very high-level summary of the four-page pledge.
“It is the policy of the National Rifle Association of America to conduct the Association’s business in an honest and forthright manner. To this end, Association employees strive for excellence in their work and for a consistent standard of integrity in their business dealings.
Consistent with this objective is the Association’s requirement that all employees comply with applicable bylaws and policies of the association, and all relevant laws and regulations in conducting the association’s business. No violation of the spirit or intent of these bylaws, policies, laws and regulations will be tolerated.”
Of course, any safeguards are only as effective as the gatekeepers who enforce them. Moving forward, the NRA has three principled business leaders as Board officers. The officers have appointed strong chairmen and excellent members to all the governance committees. Almost half of the Board of Directors has been replaced over the past few years by the will of the members.
In my previous columns, I endeavored to address three things you have been asking for: an explanation of what really happened, an apology on behalf of the Board and details about what we are doing to prevent any malfeasance from ever occurring again.
To prevent history from repeating itself, we must never forget the past. You can reach me by email at [email protected] or visit my website, nrapresident.com, for additional information or any questions.
Since April, the officers, Board members and NRA leadership have been working hard to rebuild the trust and the NRA we all once knew. Now I believe that we need to focus on the future. The hard work is paying off and we have some very exciting announcements coming in future columns. In the meantime, please stay vigilant.
