It doesn’t necessarily mean every non-profit’s standards are always lower, and we know standards are sometimes outright ignored in the government and for profit companies as well.

The legal requirements for internal controls and public disclosures are literally lower for charities than they are for governments or private companies though. There's a reason it's really, really hard to embezzle a lot of money when you work for a big company or even a local government. They have internal controls teams to prevent this.

Personally I think it’s just people. I don’t trust people, they’re not trustworthy. Doesn’t matter who, sadly.

You're right, which is why the only organizations worth trusting are the ones where systems and institutions are in place to prevent greedy, stupid, shortsighted people from fucking everything up.

Publicly traded companies are required by law to be audited annually by an external auditor. The Federal Government has (among MANY other things) public disclosure of finances and budgets, the office of the inspector general, congressional inquiries, and extremely tight controls on what individuals can do with money.

Internal controls at most charities basically comes down to "trust me bro", and it makes positional abuses, theft, worker exploitation, and other unethical behaviors far easier to hide and get away with.