Question about Executive Compensation of a non profit...Feeding America

[Stuart G]

I would like to hear from fellow DU members about an interesting question. A little background..
I often receive mail from Feeding America/Americas Second Harvest..
..a leading charity around the country that helps to distribute food to the poor....

The letters come often, about once ever 60 days. for ever..
Food is a necessity, the poor need food. MOre people are poor
... enough said..but

Here is the question....
Is her compensation fair?
The executive compensation of the CEO Vicki Escarra is over $400,000..to work as head of a charity

412,000 base salary
22,000 benefits
__________________

total
434,000.......................yep 434,000 a year...2009...

So..Again...The charity raises about $600,000,000 ($597,979,986) most of it goes for food,...no I do not know how much
.. and she gets $434,000.a year
....is that fair..What do you think?

Something does not feel right about this to me...

Here is a link as to where I got my info...it looks legitimate

http://philanthropy.com/premium/stats/salary/index.php?...

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. On the surface, no.

What is their expense ratio - the % they pay in overhead?

[Stuart G]

4. I was wondering the same. that number is not clear..to me..at this point anyway.

But I will look some more..

[Tansy_Gold]

2. See post #12 here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Recursion]

3. Find me a $600 million company whose CEO makes less than that

So cutting her pay to 0 would increase the amount of food they can distribute by 0.07%

I understand executive compensation is an emotional subject, but by itself it's never much of an enterprise's expenses.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Big difference between CEO of a for-profit company

and CEO of a "charity."

The woman used to be president of an airline; one presumes she doesn't need the money.

It's not a matter of how many people can be fed on her $400K; it's the principle.

Charity begins at home, as they say.




TG, TT

[Recursion]

6. That's why she "only" makes $400K

If she were running a similar-sized for-profit, she'd be making a lot more.

$400K sounds about right to me for the head of a solvent non-profit. She brought administrative experience and a fat rolodex with her, and neither of those come particularly cheap.

[Tunkamerica]

12. If they pay her that she must be worth it...

just like the people who make minimum wage are worth what they are paid. The unemployed are worth nothing or less than nothing. Makes total sense.

[JackRiddler]

8. So what? Something being normal wouldn't make it right.

Just pointing out the fallacy. Although I think about $400,000 is an acceptable top salary for such a position. (Not in a non-profit, however -- if you can't live spectacularly well on $200,000 plus benefits and a travel expense account, fuck you and your "charity.")

More often of course they're making millions to pretend their input is worth that much more than the cleaning lady's. These titans!

[Recursion]

11. They need a CEO with a lot of contacts she can press for funding

That's her job. And since they need that, they have to pay in the same neighborhood other organizations are paying for it. So it may not make it "right" but it makes it necessary.

[Arctic Dave]

7. 400,000 for any non-profit executive is too much.

[JackRiddler]

10. Except unfortunately that it's normal, and that's what class society is all about.

All of them will claim to be doing God's work, after all -- the private sector types even more so.

[Stuart G]

9. A site calld "MONEY BLOG says this..

http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/11/15/257-... /

The help of food banks
Small local food banks that network with Feeding America will benefit their patrons dramatically. Consider taking $2 to the grocery store to buy canned goods for a local food collection. Won’t buy you much, right? However, with Feeding America, that $2 can provide dinner for someone in need for two whole weeks!

A full 97 percent of all funds received go directly to support hunger relief. That means they only use 3 percent to cover executive expenses. Now that’s an efficient business operation. You can go onto the Feeding America website and donate $25, which will help feed a family of four for two weeks. Or, even better, you can encourage your local food banks to network with Feeding America to help in the global effort to provide hunger relief.


But this still isn't clear..local food banks are efficient..but is Feeding America???
and Money Blog is not really a reliable source me thinks..

[DrDan]

13. can $400K be attributed to her holding that position? If so, then yes - she is worth it

[Hannah Bell]

14. first, i don't think they raise $600 mill. i think most of that is the "value" of food donated

(which gives the donors a nice tax write-off, btw).

second, non-profit leaders that make so much money can be assumed to be in it for the money, & in the pockets of the ptb.

i'm telling you, most philanthropies are rackets, & the biggest ones are the biggest rackets of all.

[Tansy_Gold]

15. ITA. n/t