Ever wonder where that donation money goes? Keep these facts in mind when "donating". As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster, keep the following facts in mind; we have listed them from the highest (worse paid offender) to the lowest (least paid offender). The worst offender was yet again for the 11th year in a row is, UNICEF - CEO, receives $1,200,000 per year, (plus use of a Royal Royce for his exclusive use where ever he goes, and an expense account that is rumored to be well over $150,000.) Only pennies from the actual donations goes to the UNICEF cause (less than $0.14 per dollar of income). The second worst offender this year is Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross...for her salary for the year ending in 2009 was $651,957 plus expenses. Enjoys 6 weeks - fully paid holidays including all related expenses during the holiday trip for her and her husband and kids. including 100% fully paid health & dental plan for her and her family, for life. This means out of every dollar they bring in, about $0.39 goes to related charity causes. The third worst offender was again for the 7th time was, Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary ( U.S. funds), plus so many numerous expense benefits it's hard to keep track as to what it is all worth, including a fully paid lifetime membership for 2 golf courses (1 in Canada , and 1 in the U.S.A. ), 2 luxury vehicles, a yacht club membership, 3 major company gold credit cards for his personal expenses...and so on. This equates to about $0.51 per dollar of income goes to charity causes. Fourth worst offender who was also again in the fourth spot, for every year since this information has been made available from the start 1998 is amazingly yet again, World Vision President ( Canada ) receives $300,000 base salary, (plus supplied -a home valued in the $700,000 - $800,000 dollar value range, completely furnished, completely paid all housing expenses, including taxes, water/sewer, telephone/fax, HD/high speed cable, weekly maid service and pool/yard maintenance, fully paid private schooling for his children, upscale automobile and an $55,000 personal expense account for clothing/food, with a $125,000 business expense account). Get this, because it is a "religious based" charity, it pays, little to no taxes, can receive government assistance and does not have to declare were the money goes. Only about $0.52 of earned income per dollar is available for charity causes. Of the sixty some odd "charities" we looked at, the lowest paid (President/C.E.O/Commissioner) was heading up a charity group right here in Canada . We found, believe it or not, it was...... Ready for this... I think you might be surprised... It is, none other than... The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 Billion dollar organization. Which means about $0.93 per dollar earned, is readily available and goes back out to local charity causes...truly amazing ...and well done "Sally Anne" No further comment is necessary..."Think Twice" before you give to your Charity of choice as to which one really does the best for the most - or the least for the most, for that matter.
What was the source on that info Brewster? The Salvation Army has always been a well respected organization... I am surprised that the RedCross is up so high on the list (assuming the information is accurate).. as for Unicef.. not in the least surprised there.. just like the UN itself, its rife with corruption, wastefulness, and inefficiencies. Personally I avoid religious charities/evangelists that try to use "the word of God" to get people to hand over their cash since I know all too well that most of them are a complete crooks... and the little bit that does make it to "help" people will more than likely be in the form of missions and such in 3rd world countries where they could do with food more than a new religion... or events where they spend far more promoting their charitable work than they spend actually doing the charity...
The info was emailed to me. I checked it with several websites. My apologies, however, as I missed the correct salary for Todd Bassett at the Salvation Army. Most sources agree that it is actually closer to $95,000.00 annually. Still, well below others. And one could argue that many CEO's of corporations make a lot more than these executives. But that's part of the problem, isn't it? Top executives are making ridiculously huge amounts of money, proportionate to the revenues of their organizations, compared to their counterparts not that many years ago. And these days they are being "rewarded' for shipping jobs overseas.
Brewster, your info doesn't surprise me. We see many of the salaries of employees of "charitable organizations" and many of their employees are in the six figure bracket and these aren't even the top executives. As for ministers and priests, many are very well compensated. I remember one minister who was a pastor in a relatively small rural church and this guy had seven timeshares that he had purchased and was paying for out of his (in his mind) meager salary. We also see another local non-profit that maintains group homes for the mentally handicapped spending massive amounts of money suing the guardians of their consumers because the guardians have the audacity to request adequate treatment for their relatives.
As someone who worked in "charitable organizations" for 23 years I agree with Brewster. But it is not only the large national organizations, the local ones get out of hand too. Though there is probably about 85% local small organizations that struggle and do not overpay.
Don't get me wrong.. if your full time jobs is at a charity, I don't expect you to do it for minimum wage, but I do think that the people in charge should be of the charity mindset, and not waste money on uncommonly high salaries and luxuries that are contrary to the stated goal of the organization. But realistically, people are greedy.. and given the chance to increase their wealth they will... we might all get irritated at some of the payouts, but if that were us in the job, we might think we deserve every penny... the bottom line for me is, don't just throw money at charities and call it a day, go out and see what you can do yourself to make the world just a little bit better.
RE. Charitable Donations? Where does your money really go? I work at World Vision Canada and it is great that you’re addressing charity accountability and transparency in this forum. However, the facts related to the president of World Vision Canada are incorrect. Our president earns a salary of $184,000, plus a moderate vehicle allowance - which is actually below the market average for a position such as this. If you would like to learn more about how World Vision determines this and other salaries, I encourage you to read our policy by visiting the following link: Our Approach to Executive Compensation You can also access our annual reports and audited financial statements here: Annual Reports and Financial Statements
That info about the United Way annoys me. The property management company where I live has given the United Way a huge chunk of our resident/guest parking lot to them for home game college football weekends. So they make $1000's of our parking lot and us residents or our guests have to deal with a severe shortage or parking spots for the 6-7 busiest weekends of the year. /rant over
