To think most charities are just ego projects for their leadership?

[CraftyAmberReader]

So many charities seem more about flashy CEOs, PR campaigns and self-promotion than the actual cause. AIBU to think they’re often vanity projects at the top?

Can you give us an example of a self-promoting CEO please and tell us what they did to self-promote?

Well, it's a different spin on "all charity shop volunteers are grumpy old harridans who are stealing all the good stuff".

As I always point out on these threads, charities are held to a much higher level of scrutiny than other types of business. Anyone can log into the charity commission website and find out about them, and all the big charities publish detailed accounts and information about how they're spending, and why.

I find this idea that charities should run on fresh air, with nobody earning salaries above minimum wage, and spending every single penny they receive without keeping any in reserve is weird. And sneery. And ignorant.

And to be honest, if they’re doing a good job what’s wrong with them patting themselves on the back a bit? At least they’re not running companies that put inflammable cladding on tower blocks.

Examples?

My adult children knew other grads (leaving uni) who were working for some of the largest charities and their salaries were far in excess of other household name private companies.

Some of the non-exec directors earn huge amounts for just showing their faces a few times a year or having their name on the website.

So I am a bit sceptical.

The CEOs earning £130k will be leading huge, complex and probably international organisations. They will have huge budgets, huge responsibilities, and a large workforce (plus many many volunteers that they have responsibility for).

I've got to go out so don't have time to find the stats that compare charity salaries with equivalent corporate companies, but seriously, those people are worth every penny.

The CEO of the charity of which I'm a trustee, earns £44k. She has incredible skills and experience, and could earn far more elsewhere.

I wish people who found small new charities in memory of a loved one would instead donate or raise money for an established charity which does the same thing. I get that the huge mega charities may be off-putting because they spend so much on infrastructure but there are medium-sized ones which do good work.

Otherwise there’s a proliferation of small groups doing much the same. The exception would be where funds are very locally focused.

What are you basing this piece of nonsense on?

I think you need to name names if you’re going to make statements like that.

Agree except about the poor puppy, this is just today’s goady thread from OP.

100% this. If you don’t pay a decent salary, you don’t get decent, QUALIFIED people.

I do think they attract some of the weirdest people I’ve ever met.

Not always.

But if there is a disparity between private sector and a charity something is wrong.

The person I knew of , getting more than someone in top household name company , was LESS qualified, with a mediocre media degree.

@3WildOnes I suggest you take a look at some of the accounts online for some charities. They are raking in salaries of £250K- £300K + -and that money is supposed to fund research etc.

Charities have trustees rather than NEDs. Charity regulations stipulate that trustees shouldn’t be paid. I would be surprised if grad salaries are higher than the private sector. I’ve worked in the sector, and salaries aren’t great. Could you give examples of your assertions@SarahSaharah?

This is simply untrue. Charities don't have non exec directors for a start. They have Trustees, who are not paid.

I work for a group of charities who support very vulnerable people, the managers are generally £35-£40k which is pennies really for the stressful and traumatic work they do, the support workers are on barely more than minimum wage. They do life saving work, many of the people who use our services would not be alive without their support. They deserve to be paid double!
We also save public services such as social work, health and policing millions in preventative work, where people would end up in far worse situations without our support.

I don't doubt some charities might waste money but the sector does a lot of good, and we're there picking up the pieces when the government fails to act.

🙄🙄🙄 give over!

Non-execs in charities are usually known as Trustees and are almost always unpaid. And there is no way that a typical charity exec is earning more than a typical private sector exec in an equivalent sized organisation.

There is literally nothing in this post that is true.

Bollox! Go on then, provide a handful of examples.

I've worked in charity recruitment (I specialise in Exec and Non-Exec/Trustees) for 20 years and I've never done a role that comes even close to £200k let alone £300k. There will always be the exception that proves the rule but 99.9% are nowhere near this.

The CEO of Oxfam UK earns £125,000. It's harder to think of a larger charity than Oxfam.

In 2023/24 he was responsible for a budget of £365 million, 4300 full time employees (some working in dangerous places) plus over 18,000 volunteers.

If he was the UK CEO of a national business of a similar size and set of responsibilities, you can't tell me he'd earn the same (or less)

What on earth am I reading? Non execs? Ego projects? £300k salaries?

Try better prompts on your wee ChatGPT attempts at punching down and stirring division because this is just nonsense.

I'm a trustee. The Charity Commission rules are so strict that I can't benefit in any way from the role, even obliquely, never mind get paid for it! No-one on the board even claims any expenses.

Have you ever been involved directly in serving on the board of a charity, or closely involved with one? I have served as trustee on a number of charities and have advised many local charities. I can assure you that the chief executives (where the were any, and not just everything done by the trustees) were hard working, willing to do a huge amount in their own time and definitely not in it for the the self promotion. If they were there would be far easier ways of going about it.
Please give it some thought before making such widespread insults. If you have objections to particular charities, be more focused in what you say.

I work for a charity, we're run by a board of volunteers (trustees) and our CEO earns 60k for a 60hr+ per week job where they're usually away from home working all hours and, worst of all, having to spend time in the company of politicians. They are paid peanuts in terms of the work they put in. For me and the rest of the team, we earn about 20% less than we could if we worked for tbe private sector, take a lot of our work home with us even just in our thoughts and aren't allowed to expense anything that's not strictly necessary or benefit from any complimentary entertainment or networking. We do the job because we believe in the cause. I work alongside hundreds of other charities and my experience isn't uncommon.

Tldr; YABU

Exactly this. I know so many people who work for animal charities and everything that comes in goes back out to help the animals. All of my contributions are to charities like these, I don't bother with rspca or battersea types though, I know a much higher percentage of what I give will just go in pockets and between us, we give 10k a year. Not massive but enough to have a real impact if used properly.

Wrong

I volunteered for a search and rescue team that has existed for 25 years. In that time they've carried out more that 3000 searches on behalf of the police including cases of murder, suicide, people with dementia and other ailments and missing children & vulnerable adults.

Four chairpeople so far (no CEO). A stash of Queens Platinum Jubilee medals

Not a flashy PR campaign in sight, just a lot of giving up personal time and turning out in all weathers to help those who are having the worst days of their lives, and their families.

Zero pay, unreasonable hours, sometimes 40,000 steps in a day, plenty of training to deal with the sometimes traumatic issues that arise.

Perhaps you should try volunteering OP. Most areas have a lowland search team.