YSK there's a tool to check US non-profit compensation
Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica
Was curious about the foundation I donate to. Turns out about 80% of the donations go to pay the executive director...
Checking the Electronic Frontier Foundation Inc, my cool t-shirts provider. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/43091431
Revenue $17,954,838
92.7% from contributions
7.4% goes to Executive Compensation with the top earner being for Cindy Cohn (Executive Director) $336k, 58% to other salaries.
7% doesn't seem too bad, but I still wonder if an international free web defending non-profits requires being in SF, one of the most expensive cities in the world. It could probably move to a normal city and cut compensations cost by 2 or 3.
Similar situation for the Wikimedia Foundation Org https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/200049703.
Yeah, Wikimedia is disappointing... The CEO makes over $500k and there are half a dozen other people who each make over $300k. I am seriously reconsidering my monthly donation to them. I love Wikipedia with all my heart, but it looks like my money would go further if I donated to the Internet Archive instead.
Interestingly, it was worse the year before.
2023
2022
Wikimedia is a big organization though, right? $500k doesn't seem too outrageous considering the scope.
That seems like a much lower salary than they would get running a for-profit tech company, though. Moving out of SF would also make it harder to hire people with a lot of experience in tech.
Isn't it obvious that people working at a for profit company would earn much more?
We are not in the 2000' anymore, there are people with 30 years of experience in tech in many other places. Furthermore, internet nonprofit could champion remote working.
Yo, compensation doesn't matter.
Outcome per dollar matters.
Hiring people at starvation wages may work, or hiring more expensive cream of the crop may work. What I care about when I'm donating is "did my dollars accomplish what I wanted?" And "could my dollars have done more for the cause elsewhere?"
If people are making the world better and have nice office furniture I don't really begrudge them that.
Compensation of certain individuals (e.g., officers, key employees, highest paid) is required to be reported on the public disclosure nonprofit tax return (Form 990). This site makes them easy to find, but the most recent filings can take a while to appear. You can visit or contact in writing any nonprofit directly and they are required to provide their public Form 990 to you.
Fantastic! Love seeing the CEO pay. Some of the "scam" charities aren't as bad as I assumed.
That $184M salary for that Massachusetts yacht club is atrocious.
I've worked in one non-profit. It took only a matter of days to figure out that it existed solely to enrich the director.
I started hunting for a new job immediately.
You worked for a shifty nonprofit. There are plenty of good ones out there, they just tend not to be the family foundations, pomeranian rescues or mega nonprofits that sponsor events all over the place all the time.
I agree. I had almost mentioned in my original post that a co-worker had warned me against working in a non-profit before I left, based on her having a similar experience, and I went for it anyway. She was right. It's not every non-profit, but the problem is rampant.
I don't like the implication that people working for non-profits should make less money than people working for for-profit companies.
If a network engineer makes $130k at a non-profit versus $140k at a for-profit, they are effectively donating $10k a year to the cause. Very few people making $130k are donating $10k a year.
Yes, there are always more efficient and cheaper ways to work, but forcing non-profits to grind and answer and defend every penny spent just makes them shitty places to work on top of the financial hit the employees are taking. 😔
Child's Play still seems good, thank God.
It would be cool if they would provide some useful statistics about the aggregated data as well. Maybe something like showing the percentile for pay to the ED/CEO or for the total compensation compared to other organizations in the sector.
I didn’t scour the site so maybe this does exist.
