January 5, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Several charity experts are discussing the need for nonprofit workers to be better paid and for donors to support management training, technology upgrades, and related administrative costs.
The discussions were prompted by Dan Pallotta, a former fund raiser, and his new book, Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential. In the book, Mr. Pallotta argues in part that the charity world will not achieve real progress unless it matches the salaries provided by businesses and invests more in advertising.
Writing on a New York Times blog, On the Ground, Charlie MacCormack, chief executive of Save the Children, an international aid group, agrees somewhat with Mr. Pallotta.
“I think Pallotta goes too far in his recommendations. However, I am convinced that humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children are too far over in the opposite direction — our uncompetitive salaries make it almost impossible for people to develop real careers; our under-investment in staff development hampers performance; and our creaky knowledge management and information systems undermine potential results,” he writes.
Nicholas D. Kristof, a Times columnist and author of On the Ground, writes that Mr. MacCormack is “exactly right.”
Mr. Kristof, who recently wrote a column about Mr. Pallotta’s book, also writes “that there needs to be much more rigorous evaluation, by arms-length outsiders, perhaps coupled with randomized experiments to see whether a given intervention really works. Right now, every group claims that every intervention ‘works,’ and it’s hard to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.”
Mr. Pallotta’s ideas are also being discussed on other blogs, such as Tactical Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership 601.
Read The Chronicle’s article about Mr. Pallotta.
What do you think of Mr. Pallotta’s ideas? Click on the comment button below to share your thoughts.
