Charity....As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster

[arabianequine]

yep she sure is

 

[RabbitMage]

Does anyone want to try and work the ideals of "free market capitalism" into this discussion? How would the market solve this issue of overpaid non-profit executives?

...wait, I think it already is.

 

[welsummerchicks]

The assumption is that anyone could just step into that sort of job and do it - which is wrong. VERY wrong. 100% wrong. 1000% wrong.

That job is not about hugging people and thanking them for their donations or perks. It's not about sitting with your feet up on a maple desk either.

It's a horrible job, a huge responsibility, the responsibility for managing millions of dollars is on that person's head.

There is no way in the world someone without experience, education and lots and lots of familiariity with...

1. the laws that govern non profits (one advanced degree and a number of jobs learning it)

2. how a business of that size needs to be run (another advanced degree and ditto on jobs learning it)

3. how to profitably invest that money (ditto)

4. how to deal with regulators, heads of other similarly sized organizations

5. how to recognize when inadequate financial controls are in place

6. how to deal with the public and media

7. how to get grants and the laws that cover them

...can step into a position like that. Anyone who thinks it's so very simple and easy, really should get involved in the non profit world - they are in for a very, very rude awakening.

The ideas people have when they've never even set foot in that world...amazing...

The CEO has to understand all aspects of the business - the financials, the legal side, the regulations side - he may have lientenants doing the leg work, but he has to be able to evaluate if they are doing their job.

Running a non profit that size is not much different in scale and level of complexity anyway, from running a multinational corporation. The idea that someone can do that without experience, training, just step into it, the idea that anyone would or could do that job for 35k...

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

What welsummer said!


Do you have any ideas of the demands that people who give their large sums of money place on charitable organizations? In order to do the job I did once upon a time I needed several advanced degrees which did not come free. I was pressured into getting them (and I do not regret them one bit) but my student loan payment when I was done was $700 a month. I simply would have had to leave non-profit leadership if my pay had not gone up.

My pay was 1/3 of what I could have made in the private practice and like most others eventually I left. I was burned out and exhausted and broke.




Perhaps some CEOs of huge organizations do get overpaid, but I really wonder what people think they do all day.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Do people think 'non profits are easier because they don't have to make a profit'?

They have to do something much, much harder - sustain the organization.

 

[Dunkopf]

I haven't seen any figures that are out of line on the CEO's of the listed organizations. I object to some of the other salaries CEO's in different companies make. In my opinion, CEO's should get paid on something along the lines of a commission. They can work hard and get the company in line and be rewarded. If the company does poorly so do they. Yes it is a very stressful job and the CEO has no home life. He or she has something that is more important to them. If they don't like the stress than they shouldn't do the job. Save 1 year of salary and buy a nice ranch and retire. Live like the rest of the population.

The thinking that just because a CEO runs a non profit they should work for free is ludicrous.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Think of the title of this thread, Charity....As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster. Now, if you think the CEO's are overpaid, make a list of what is required to respond to a natural disaster. Think of purchasing the materials and equipment to have on hand, warehousing these so generators don't freeze up, food does not spoil, diesel or gasoline is available, whatever. Plan where you are going to store it so it is available after the disaster, the personnel and equipment that is required to move it to where it needs to be, try planning how you distribute it. Do that for an earthquake, then a hurricane, then a tornado, then a major fire. Don't forget floods. Think of the planning on where these might occur and how you would respond. Now decide how much money you need and how you are going to raise that money. Now put all the controls in place so that people are not stealing from the organization. How do you recruit and keep the people with the talent and knowledge to manage the details of all this? Your upper echelon of people are going to be full time employees. This is not something that you can do every other Thursday night. Several of the laborers will also be full time employees, but you also have to recruit a huge network of volunteers for a whole lot of the grunt work. Many of these volunteers have to be trained to be able to handle the duties. Would you like to set up the training program? Think of the communications network you have to have in place that can handle the normal communications systems destroyed. How do you coordinate with government officials so you can be effective and even get access to disaster areas? Hiow do you house and feed your volunteers or paid employees when they reach the disaster site? Since they control the stuff that is very valuable in a disaster situation, food, water, ice, clothing, how do you provide security? I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out.

Now find somebody that can not only manage this organization and have it prepared to act effectively with absolutely no advance notice 24/7, find somebody that can also get it to function when in the middle of a natural disaster when law and order, water, electricity, and sewage are probably not available and roads are probably blocked. Then ask the person that can do all this effectively and could make millions in private industry to do this for $35,000 a year.

 

[thechickenchick]

Quote:
I just started reading this thread. So far this is as far as I have gotten, before you cast stones because I have committed the sin of "not reading the whole thing before posting", I promise to finish reading it right after this post.

NellaBean you just confirmed that I made the right choice. I use to donate to every animal related organization that sent me an envelope. My husband and I would see an abused animal commercial and he would say, we gave to them right? Yes, of course we did. Well then I found a stray dog that we could not keep, we have a house full already. Also she needed an eye surgery. I called a shelter in the next county because ours doesnt have one. They said they would take her and to bring her to the vets office to get checked. This is our vet and we had an appoinment that day anyway. They took her and performed the surgery. I left a small donation, was all I could do at the time. Then the following month I recieved a newsletter from this shelter and learned so much about how they work. We also learned that the dog we took them had already been adopted

I was very impressed and told my husband I think it is more important that we keep our $ local and help out the animals in our own backyard, he agreed. It feels so rewarding to read in the NL about the animals that got new beds, medical treatment or best of all a new home. Shortly after that I recieved the email that the OP did, only mine included the animal organizations as well, so this made me feel better about my choice, and so did you.

 

[HHandbasket]

No one said someone should do a CEO's job for $30K a year.... I just went over the thread and didn't see anyone mention that, so I don't know where you got THAT from.

What we are saying is that charity should be CHARITY and the people that run it should understand the purpose of people's donations and to at least accept a REASONABLE salary for the work they do.

What is happening is that the CEOs are taking such a HIGH PERCENTAGE of the moneys donated for their own salaries and extravagant lifestyles that it is reducing the funds available for the charity to OPERATE, thus losing its "charitable" appeal to most of us who want to donate.

Does that make more sense? Good. Hope so.

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
Did you see the statistics I posted a few pages back? The CEO salaries that I looked up --those for organizations like the Red Cross & others that were mentioned in the OP -- are TINY percentages of the overall expenditures of these organizations. For example, the CEO of the Red Cross makes a salary that is 1% OF 1% of the money spent by the Red Cross. That is the fractional equivalent of 1/10000. Some of the others were a little higher 2/10000 or 3 / 10000

Pretty small percentage, I'd say.