Thank you so much for commenting on this post. i LOVE your nonprofit fundraising blog and your tumblr too!

Really appreciate your opinion here.

Where we need to move now, to get this ball rolling, is to START CONVERSATIONS with funders about this.

Comment on the Philanthropy journal, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, talk to foundations on Twitter, or actually call some people who say they only want to fund projects, and ask them, “Do you realize what you’re doing?”

And then start to realign your nonprofit’s accounting principles so that 100% of what people give goes to the cause. Because it’s true anyway.

We need to start getting more research and metrics firms to look at our results, but our results over a 5-10 year period, not the 1 year period after we receive a grant.

Sincerely,

Mazarine

Even the idea that nonprofit CEOs can’t get paid what for-profit CEOs do – that bothers me too. Because why not? Why do we allow people who work for companies that do extensive damage – to others, to the planet – to be well paid, but somehow it’s morally wrong for people doing good to be well paid? I just don’t get it, and I refuse to contribute to that mindset.

Although I do agree with you Mazarine – all nonprofit employees should be better paid, not just CEOs. And overhead shouldn’t be a consideration when it comes to funding – outcomes should. But how do we move in that direction, when there’s so much emphasis on as low administrative costs as possible from groups like Charity Navigator and big NPOs?

I am glad you liked the post. I think we need to look away from just salaries though, and more towards the metrics of what nonprofits are actually doing. That was the point of the post.

Believe me, I’ve been in nonprofits where I was upset about what the top executive was making. Because everyone else was making peanuts! My idea for how to solve this is make sure that the leadership is paid no more than 4x what the lowest paid staff person is paid. MAKE charities invest in their staff, and if they want to be paid more, let EVERYONE be paid more. If we allow charities to compensate people with a real living wage, instead of making a culture of destitution, we’ll all have better lives.

Mazarine

Keep up the good work.

Brian