March 17, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
A writer for The GiveWell Blog takes aim at organizations like Charity Navigator that use executive salaries to evaluate a nonprofit organization’s effectiveness.
The post points to an article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about a new survey that shows younger workers are shying away from jobs at nonprofit organizations in part because of low pay.
That reluctance comes at a time when the writer says charity-watchdog groups are putting too much emphasis on salaries in their evaluations of organizations.
“Listen to me,” the writer says. “I want my donation going to needy children, not to some jerk in a suit. I want great leaders in the nonprofit sector. I am confused.”
If charities want strong leaders, they have to pay competitive salaries, the writer says.
“The problem seems to be that pesky straw ratio again, and the mentality that goes along with it: that we should evaluate charities by nitpicking their balance sheets and questioning their operating costs, rather than by looking at what they do and whether it works,” he writes.
All of the writers on the GiveWell site are anonymous; the founders of the site say they are “people who are unaffiliated with any nonprofit organization, but interested in donating to the best ones.”
Should executive salaries be used to measure a charity’s effectiveness? Do charities need to pay salaries comparable to business to attract talented leaders?
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