Charity

[wildwood]

Why are the °higher° staff in Charity organisation paid so much? The ones who do the actual work get a pittance (if they're lucky) and/or not even compo for petrol used.

Surely there must be caring people who will dispense their business expertise for a reasonable salary. The value for money cop-out doesn't wash with me.

The phone-begging for donations only causes me to strike that charity off my list. They allow their name to be used in scams where the collection 'costs' far outweigh the measly little bit that actually ends up in the charity's bank of a donation.
Again, the "we rather get a little bit than nothing" reasoning does not impress me. Media URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11435754/32-charity-bosses-paid-over-200000-last-year.html
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[wildwood]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11435754/32-charity-bosses-paid-over-200000-last-year.html

[woofgang]

While the highly paid bosses can generate their salary plus quite a bit more then charities will continue to employ them, its as simple as that. I agree with you about phone solicitation and chugging btw.

[EDDIE51]

Because charities are 'Big Business ' now they have as large a turnover as a major company. They need the same level of skill in the 'boardroom' as a company with the same turnover and budget.

[New Judge]

“They need the same level of skill in the 'boardroom' as a company with the same turnover and budget.”

If only they had, though, Eddie.

I worked in a volunteer capacity for more than nine years for a major charity. I enjoyed the work and I think the charity’s clients benefitted from my input. Along came a new Chief Exec tasked with "placing the charity on a more business-like footing". Among the measures he took to make the charity perform like the business he had recently left, he thought it a good idea to make his volunteer workforce more “flexible” (An admirable idea for a paid workforce which I have endured throughout my working life). The result for me (and hundreds like me) was that instead of being asked to travel to a local site a few miles away I could be “reallocated” on a weekly basis to anywhere in the County (which is more than seventy miles from one end to the other, and I live at one end). So, instead of a ten minute drive to carry out my eight hours of unpaid work, I might be expected to travel 150 miles in a day to do the same.

Unsurprisingly, after trying unsuccessfully to have such an arrangement reversed in an effort to see common sense prevail, I left. Also unsurprisingly so did most of my colleagues. Also unsurprisingly, because the charity was then unable to fulfil its obligations to the public (which are actually required under Statute) it lost its contract to do so.

The charity still exists (it has other arms providing other services). The Chief Exec is still in post (earning the same ridiculously high salary). But the people benefitting from the services of the part I used to work for are now served by another charity which is still “developing” the service it has taken on (because it was tasked with providing the service at short notice, hadn’t a clue how to provide it and had nobody in its organisation who did).

So I’m afraid skills in the boardroom, unless accompanied by common sense, do not necessarily equate with skills to run a charity which relies heavily on volunteer input (which most do).

[birdie1971]

My opinion on giving to charity is this: if the CEO of the charity earns twice the national average then they won't get my money. I don't think that this is unreasonable. The current national average wage is around £27k. So doubled that equates to £54k. Now as as Civil Engineer myself, £54k is (significantly) more than I am on, more than my line manager is one and more than his line manager is on. In truth, I don't know anyone in my social circle who earns a salary in excess of £50k.

In short, they can naff off. I am sick of reading about CEO's of charities that earn more than our own Prime Minister. I read the other day that the CEO of UNICEF pulls down $521,820. Half a million dollars!?! Seriously!