To feel outraged at my friends re charity salaries?

[Pissedoffandbored]

Have a group chat going with a load of my girlfriends. There have been some additions to the group chat this week, some I know well and others are just acquaintances. One girl I don’t know sent a link to published salaries for charities. Girl didn’t know I work for a National Charity in a senior position and slated the amount I earn saying people don’t deserve to earn more than PM. At this point I interjected making her aware of my position and she proceeded to have a go at me. I defended my position but most of my friends agreed I earned too much since I worked for a charity.

So AIBU to be pissed off? Also, is this the general consensus or are my mates just dick heads?

I think you should be prepared for your to be scruntised. If a charity is putting ads out on TV of children drinking dirty water and hassling pensions on the high streets, paying executives hundreds of thousands needs to be justified.

Any money that is spent on administration is not spent on the cause it was donated for so I think charities have an obligation to minimize it.

I don't donate to charities that obviously have loads of money sloshing around. The biggest ones are also the ones who are relentless about scalping people for every possible penny. I won't list the ones I've been harassed by over the years but they are the ones that would most quickly come to mind. Shame some of them can't hire talented people to make them seem human again instead of cash printing factories with a sad photo of a baby or puppy slapped on the front.

This is the same as the whole bankers are paid too much argument. Anyone who works in senior finance or business knows you have risks doing that job and have to be highly trained. It's not an average skilled job and you should be paid accordingly providing you are successful...hence bonus pay. That's not to say we haven't got other underpaid jobs such as healthcare which we do, also highly skilled massively important jobs.

Let's be reasonable here, if we want to complain about things being unfair look at the pay footballers get to kick a bag of air around, or massive corporations who avoid tax in our country leading to us having to pay more to make up the deficit. A CEO being paid her worth is a non issue if you want the charity to actually be successful and a higher percentage of your donation to reach its intended cause. As the OP states she sleeps well at night I have to assume she delivers on this.

I work in a large charity in a public sector type role and the pay is almost the same as the market value. I want to do the type of work because I like my caring profession but just would not be able to afford doing it for way less than working for the statutory sector.

I agree with some of the comments that the rates don’t stack up in other professions, but do people really understand the responsibility of a CEO? The buck stops with them regarding the actions of many employees. To think someone would do that for £40/50k is insane to me. £150k is pretty high imo, but if you are turning things around, I think it could be argued for.

I think it’s an easy critique to make. Give it all a second moment’s thought and it is often (not always) a misguided complaint.

You pay peanuts , you get monkeys

I think charities have to pay
Market rates for talent

I think people misunderstand charities.
Eton is a Charity.
Kings Canterbury is a Charity.
Most academy chains are charities.
Bupa is a Charity.
MSI is a Charity.
It’s not all about starving babies in Africa.
People in Healthcare can earn very large salaries.
People in education can earn very large salaries.
Why would the master at a Eton earn less than a comprehensive headteacher? Why would they do their job for less than the going rate?

You are not being unreasonable. Some charities are huge global companies with multi-billion pound turnover. They need good people to manage them well and make the most difference.

Look at the salaries, then look at the turnover Still think they're not worth it? Meanwhile read in the first paragraph what the CEO of Thames Water gets.

I know which I think is value for money.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEO_compensation_among_charities_in_the_United_Kingdom

And totally agree, @Csleeptime, footballer salaries disgust me I have to say.

Obviously the charity you work for must be one of the large national ones in which case the salary is completely justified. I've worked in the charity sector for over 10 years too (not on a high salary at all - always at small charities) and understand how much work goes into fundraising. It's not a case of simply saying too much of donations goes towards salaries - there wouldn't be those donations if it wasn't for skilled people working there.

If anything, charities by definition do something good - compared to many other large organisations that pay high salaries to management.

All charities accounts are in the public domain. All salaries are published.

YABU

@Jemima232 what is a CF?

Lifecraft
If they had that sort of impact AND ensured those on the front line had reasomable pay and conditions, weren't pushing people to volunteer in the hope of a job which gets dangled as a carrot but never materialised etc then they could have the £1 million.

Great, so you agree that in the right circumstances, it's ok to pay the head of a charity a huge salary. That's all we're discussing here. No one would agree that useless people should be paid a large salary. In any job. But the right person doing a great job, should be.

The perception of charity has to widen, also, I think.
Universities are registered charities too. We’re far from fully funded by the government, fees, research grants, etc., and have to pursue charitable giving too.
Academic salaries start in the mid-high £30k bracket. Senior managers/vice-chancellors are paid ridiculous salaries, which are published online. They average around the £250k mark.

I recently was asked to apply for the managers job in the charity shop where I volunteer. Shade over £17k a year. Shop open 7 days a week. Total responsibility for everything from health and safety to budgets. No support from a deputy manager. Key holder responsibility of getting out of bed to attend in the middle of the night in an emergency. Only get a day off when there's volunteer cover.

The money is rubbish. Even an area manager covering 30 shops is only on about £25k. £30k if they're really experienced.

I would do a bloody good job and boost what our store contributes - currently £160.000 each year after costs. But for £17k and all that hassle? No chance.

Merename - can you explain your comment, "the buck stops with them regarding the actions of many employees," please? When was a CEO last sacked instead of an employee who made a mistake serious enough for the CEO to be blamed for it? Or do you mean, CEOs are responsible for failing to do their own job properly?

This is the very reason I have stopped the majority of my charitable giving. We are bombarded by telephone calls and heart wrenching television adverts exhorting us to give more. When the salaries of some of the people heading up these 'charities' began filtering into the public domain, I cancelled the bulk of my direct debits immediately.

Well I for one am going to stop giving to the big charities now, I will stick to small local ones.

footballer salaries disgust me I have to say.

Anyone, a footballer, an A list actor, a hedge fund manager, who can make huge sums of money for the people employing them, deserves to earn a decent cut of those huge amounts of money.

End of story.

I have no respect for andront support charities where the vast majority of donations go to paying staff/marketing/other expenses. If your charity is an absolutely huge charity relative to your salary and the vast majority of donations go where you say they go then that’s fair enough but if your charity is in the business of charities then you should be ashamed-you are conning people into donating money to you when they could have donated it to a good cause.

They begrudge salaries in the charity sector, and I see their point, and agree tbh.
Not your fault OP, we all have to work and you are at least working for a good cause.
Rightly or wrongly I don't give to large charities because of this.
I choose local hospices or local church and community charities.
It's nothing personal, I'm sure you earn every penny.

Of you are running a charity of £20M+ then I think your salary is totally fair. There’s so much misunderstanding about charities on here. Of course a CEO of a £500k charity isn’t going to be paid £150k and it’s likely to be heavily reliant on volunteers to deliver their work.

As charities get larger the complexities grow and anyone who thinks you can pay rock bottom salaries and get people who can run an efficient and sustainable charity are completely are living in la la land.

I agree with your friends

I recently was asked to apply for the managers job in the charity shop where I volunteer. Shade over £17k a year. Shop open 7 days a week. Total responsibility for everything from health and safety to budgets. No support from a deputy manager. Key holder responsibility of getting out of bed to attend in the middle of the night in an emergency. Only get a day off when there's volunteer cover. The money is rubbish. Even an area manager covering 30 shops is only on about £25k. £30k if they're really experienced. I would do a bloody good job and boost what our store contributes - currently £160.000 each year after costs. But for £17k and all that hassle? No chance.

And there we have it. If a charity wants to recruit decent people to do a good job, they have to pay decent money. From the CEO down.