Charity bosses salaries

[MsChalloner]

AIBU to think charity bosses shouldn't earn more than the Prime Minister? She appears to earn about £150k. Am I being naive to think this?

I support charities that are effective. That have a low admin cost/service delivery ratio. If it takes a highly paid executive to make the charity lean, progressive, and able to deliver excellent services/campaigning then so be it.

A care worker is looking after human beings, a highly responsible job, the going rate isn't very much, that's true, but it bloody well should be.Some of these nursing homes are raking it in, but pay their staff nat min wages. Disgusting.

I agree care workers should be paid more, but thats a seperate and complicated issue. Any job that requires little to no experience to do day to day isn’t going to be well paid in this system.

PushMyButton the officers are ministers but if you check their website it says they hire a small number of "specialist staff" who earn between £60-100k - they are not ministers.

I work for a charity. Everyone works their asses off... it’s not just the salaried hours, it’s every minute of life and the pressure to deliver the targets are enormous. It’s Sunday night at 11.15 and I’m answering emails. I’m having a massive surgery on two weeks but they can’t spare me so I’m taking my laptop into hospital.

Lots of people support those charities. They have millions in turn over. I just choose to support charities that do nothing but charitable work. There are a few. Not many.
I think there are thousands of people who are capable of running charities and they don't need these ridiculous salaries. I'm sure most people here could do with suitable training.

‘Most people’ couldnt do it with suitable training.

And thats part of the reason there are cases like that of Winterbourne View ........because care work isnt seen as a job of worth.

Marypoppinspenguins this is a genuine question. By answering your emails are you actually helping someone's life directly or hiw many steps away from helping someone are you? I know accounts, HR, fundraising, organising events, PR etc are all really time consuming but the few charities I know really well spend more time on this stuff than actually bodies on the ground helping.

Charities are often responsible for multi-million pound turnovers, thousands of staff and volunteers and for safeguarding vulnerable people.

Take the British Red Cross - they have 3,500 staff, over 30,000 volunteers, and help of millions people in the UK and overseas. And about a £250m a year turnover. Just get a retired accountant in? What are safeguarding and DBS requirements when sending volunteers overseas to war zones? Not sure - why not get a retired scout master to do it? If something goes wrong with investments, with fundraising, with staff or volunteers dying then the Chief Executive is accountable and legally liable.

Not sure I'd want an amateur surgeon doing my surgery so why would I want a gifted amateur responsible for the lives of thousands of people? The average GP earns £100,000 a year and works in a private partnership, the most senior NHS anaesthetists earn £173,000. Be sure to ask for a cheap one next time you need a serious op.

You see I genuinely believe that if you support and educate people that " most people" are truely capable of most things. But most of the high earners I know can from wealthy families, have wealthy friends, went to the right schools in the right places etc etc. I don't really believe they are true my gifted people who got their jobs through raw talent.

Actually if charities want to do well then they need to enlist the best talent. If they can't offer a money incentive then they'd have a very small pool to pick from. So I think it can be money well spent of the charity profits from their expertise.

Slane - I mostly raise money. And in answering these emails I am raising money... which directly helps people’s lives. Specifically, I have spent time with the children our money has helped.

Doesn’t explain why CEOs of charities shouldn’t be paid the market rate

Lots of retired surgeons do charity work. Millions of trainee doctors go off to help abroad too. I'm not talking about untrained or unqualified people. I'm wondering why the Red Cross can find 30,000 volunteer doctors etc but no wealthy CEO has ever retired before death and could be bothered to volunteer? My job requires 10 years training and I and many of my colleges have taken time out to volunteer.

To be clear about your question though... the money generated by me goes directly to services I sometimes literally pay for for children. So there aren’t many steps in between. If I don’t hit certain targets I’m not letting down the idea of someone... these targets are generally given to me by the parents of these children.

Maybe you could get some retired professional in, but they aren’t exactly queuing up to take on what is a pressured, demanding, full time job with serious levels of responsibility to fulfill the volunteering quota.

You could probably get these people doing lots of things but if they wanted to, they would be doing it.

Also, although things have obviously gone on at Oxfam, most charities are held to a high standard by the Charities Comission. These levels of accountability are not insignificant. Responsibility for volunteers right up to those lobbying for policy change, both of which are as important as the other, however you think it is to be actually ‘helping people’, mean that you have to have people who are capable and ultimately willing to do the job. The skills aren’t valued because they are white or male but because they are in the main, few and far between.

@RNBrie that is true, but they are not in charge of the charity at all- they are simply specialist employees.

People don’t understand that the money spent on the ‘admin’ side of things is crucial to delivering aid on the ground. Professionals will keep this as lean as possible whilst still ensuring projects are safe, meet the needs of beneficiaries, don’t channel money into the wrong places. There are so many things to be considered that it’s hard to even imagine if you don’t work in the sector but need people and resources to put in place:

E.g. a very simple project - for example giving blankets to children after an earthquake (and no the project would never be this simple)

You can’t just spend all the money on the blankets because you need

• technical advisors to identify which type of blankets won’t rot in the climate and which children are most at need
• safeguarding measures and training for all staff
• logistics/supply staff to procure at a reasonable price from reputable supplier
• transport for blankets to area and then to project site
• distribution staff to distribute safely to right people and record this
• monitoring staff to ensure project is achieving outcomes e.g. lower child mortality
• finance staff to track spend and pay people
• project staff to produce detailed report donor invariably requires
• HR to look after staff

Multiply that by hundreds of projects and contexts and its pretty complicated! And not something a retired commercial manager or volunteer could just pick up

This always confuses me, on the one hand I do believe you need to pay for the best staff however (not charity specific) they are so many incompetent people in top jobs, Philip Green, Fred the Shred, various MPs, the Carillion bosses, Anthony Jenkins, Camila Batmanghelidjh, various MPs & they never suffer many consequences.

Most charity CEO's do tons of volunteering for other charities - whilst doing their job and after the retire. they are highly trained. Charity trustees boards are entirely voluntary and unpaid and are made up of lots of wealthy successful people who give a lot of time for free.

Slaney you dont know much about charities do you?

You are being naive. The PMs package is much, much higher than the touted 150k salary. Consider the other benefits. Fully paid accommodation in London with all staff and catering; a country house with full staff and catering; cars; all travel costs; an entertainment allowance, a living away from home allowance, no council tax or fuel bills... even a cat.
Then consider the heads of most public schools getting around the 150-200k mark with free housing, reduced or free education for their children, cars, entertainment allowances. They are still charities.

Mincemeat - agree with you entirely till you get into public schools.

No one in the real charity world regards them as proper charities. Or policy think tanks....

Technical advisors to advise what kind of blanket won't rot? Seriously?

So I am correct, there are thousands of retired CEOs willing to work for free?