Is it ethical for a not for profit organization promoting clean energy to enter into a contract with an oil company where that oil company will provide sponsorship money?
Why not? The oil company’s money could be used for research on renewable energy for example.
Depends on the ethical principles that you adopt, obviously.
But accepting money from an oil company is not on all fours with, say, accepting earnings generated by slavery or exploitation or (if you consider smoking or drinking to be intrinsically evil) accepting money from tobacco or alcohol companies. Someone who advocates for clean energy doesn’t consider that generating energy from oil is intrinsically evil; just that we’d be better off if we did more of the former and less of the latter.
I’m waiting for a follow up question involving the NRA.
There can easily be nothing unethical here.
There can be a perception of unethical influence from the source of money, but so long as that is not the case it isn’t hard to make a case for ethical behaviour.
A Utilitarianism argument (greater good) or Altruistic (on the part of the donor) both create perfectly ethical reasons for accepting the money.
A range of applicable questions also help decide.
The Mom test - “would you tell your mother?” might apply,
as would “would you mention this in advertising?” and
finally “the smell test” - does it just smell bad?
If a group promoting clean energy is happy to have it publicly know that the money was donated and accepted, there is little reason to suggest it is unethical.
The idea in general that oil producers are wedded to a life of environmental damage in the pursuit of pure profit is something of a bogey man. Most of the big oil companies are not fool, and there is a pretty clear understanding of the causes and nature of environmental damage within them. Obviously they are not going to just shut up shop and stop pumping oil, but most are looking towards a long term future, and for many this future includes the option of being an energy company - in whatever form that comes.
The reasons an oil company might see fit to support a clean energy group could be many fold. They probably include everything from altruism, common good, buying public favour. It is where a perception that they might be buying influence for their own gain that everyone want to be careful. If they were, it would be unethical. But if not, there should be no issue. But the perception would need to be managed, and keeping everything in the open is clearly the first vital step.
Will this hasten the move to sustainable energy? Yes.
Will this keep oil companies pumping oil longer? No.
Really, from a financial perspective, this is a no-brainer.
Moderator Action
This is probably more a matter of opinion than fact, so let’s move this to IMHO (from GQ).
Also, thread title edited to more clearly indicate the topic. Please use descriptive thread titles.
Ah, but might the fact that it gets money from an oil company eventually diminish the credibility of the nonprofit in question? Could the oil company be sponsoring it with that goal in mind?
Are you talking about Sponsor Energy, by any chance ?
As indicated by some answers above, the answer is “it depends”. It’s not so much the money or the donor that may present an ethical dilemma, it’s the details of the arrangement. Perhaps the oil company wants to help your NFP because they want to invest in clean energy and are positioning themselves to prosper in the future. Perhaps they want to leverage the donation to slow or misdirect your mission. Some more questions to consider:
-Is the money given with no strings attached, or only for a specific area of research/study?
-Is there any pressure to publish certain results? (Think tobacco companies funding “scientific” research, among other examples)
-Is the donor asking for any control over the direction of the NFP?
These type questions will determine how ethical the arrangement is.
Influence is only influence when it’s exercised.
If the nonprofit doesn’t do anything questionable, there’s no question of influence. If the non-profit does start doing questionable things, that would be something to investigate, but the fact an oil company was giving it money wouldn’t prove that funding was the reason the non-profit was acting questionably. It would be an avenue to pursue, however.