In a post a couple of weeks ago, I attempted to shed some light on the then-breaking “scandal” regarding the compensation of Roxanne Spillett, President of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. I was glad that my post, which was intended by as an analytic and non-judgmental look at the numbers behind the controversy, was received that way by most (including Dan Pallotta, an outspoken advocate for higher nonprofit pay levels). Hopefully, the conversation will take an even more informed turn once the additional information requested from BGCA by Senator Grassley et al. is received and becomes public. (The Senators requested that the additional information be provided by Monday, March 29th. To this point, there have been no reports with regard to the receipt or content of that information.)
While we wait, I wanted to respond to a very good question that I received regarding my original post. This involves an important clarification to the comparisons I provided, but also points to just how muddy the waters around nonprofit executive compensation analyses can be.
Continue reading ‘The Fine Print: BGCA Executive Pay Update’
My new post on the Mission Connected Blog,“The Power of Why”, stresses the importance of communicating to employees the context, importance, and relevance of their work in order to maximize the effectiveness of training and coaching and to increase employee motivation and productivity.
Here’s this week’s roundup of interesting nonprofit sector jobs in and around New York City that I came across in my Twitter stream (I usually retweet them with the hashtags #NYC #nonprofit #jobs), through my clients or network, or via other sources:
Continue reading ‘NYC Nonprofit Jobs – 3/27/10′
I am very pleased to announce that I will be among the speakers at the 2010 Nonprofit Human Resources Conference!
The conference, which is produced by Nonprofit HR Solutions and sponsored by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, will be held October 3-5 in Washington, DC.
My session, “Pay for Today (and Tomorrow): Compensation in the Nonprofit Sector”, will take place on Monday, October 4th, from 3:45pm to 5:00pm. The session will:
- Focus on prevailing practices and emerging trends regarding compensation in the nonprofit sector
- Provide the new, established, or non-HR professional with insight into the current and future state of nonprofit compensation
- Offer a broad survey of the state-of-the-art in topics including pay-for-performance, variable and incentive pay, and non-cash rewards
- Consider the impact of changes underway in the nonprofit sector — including the increased focus on organization evaluation and measurement of impact and the emergence of low-profit, social enterprise, and other hybrid forms of organization — on the future of compensation.
Visit this link to learn more about the conference and make plans for attending. I hope to see you there!
My new post on the Mission Connected Blog,“The Buck Stops Where?”, takes a look at the appropriate positioning of compensation decision-making in nonprofit organizations.
Without setting out to do so, I ended up writing a lot about nonprofit executive compensation last week. Even less intentionally, I wound up with three posts sewn together by a common thread.
I have every intention of moving on to other topics in nonprofit human resources and organization management — and of writing posts with shorter titles. But before I do, I wanted to ask you — my nonprofit sector colleagues in the US, Canada, and beyond — for your opinion about the common thread in these posts:
What role, if any, do you feel governments should have in monitoring, regulating, or otherwise being involved in the compensation paid to executives and employees of nonprofits and charities?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo credit: takomabibelot 
I try to make a habit of re-tweeting interesting nonprofit sector jobs in and around New York City that I come across in my Twitter stream or that I hear about from my clients or others in my network. It feels good to spread the word and perhaps facilitate a great connection. I usually tweet the jobs with the hashtags #NYC #nonprofit #jobs.
Now that I’m blogging, it occurred to me that it might be worthwhile to wrap up each week with a post recapping those jobs. Here, then, is the first of what I’ll try to make a weekly feature.
Continue reading ‘NYC Nonprofit Jobs – 3/20/10′
For an update to this story, please see
The Fine Print: BGCA Executive Pay Update
The debate around the compensation paid to Roxanne Spillett, President of Boys and Girls Clubs of America, prompted by an inquiry on the part of Senator Charles Grassley and three other Republican Senators, is one which continues to grow, at least here in the blogosphere and twitterverse. While I made passing mention of the controversy in my post yesterday (Canada vs. USA…No Hockey Involved), I feel compelled to address the issue a bit less obliquely. However, if you’ve come here looking for impassioned moral or emotional arguments on either side of the controversy, you will be disappointed. That ground has been well-staked, on one end by Dan Pallotta, in his Harvard Business Review post “Senator Grassley Is Undermining the Humanitarian Sector”, and on the other by Rosetta Thurman, in her Chronicle of Philanthropy post “Nonprofit CEOs Who Want For-Profit Salaries Should Work At For-Profit Companies“. Each of their posts have received a fair number of comments on both sides of the issue.
Continue reading ‘Executive Compensation at Boys & Girls Clubs of America: A Closer Look’
Nonprofit executive compensation gets a lot of attention in the United States these days, as I wrote in my post yesterday on the Mission Connected blog (“Are Your Executive Compensation Bases Covered?“). Over the past week, the topic has gained prominence in both the US Senate and the mainstream press, as Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and three other Republican senators have raised questions about the compensation provided by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to the organization’s president. That controversy has struck an emotional chord on both sides of the issue, including a scathing response by author Dan Pallota.
In this context, I found it notable to learn this week that the issue of nonprofit executive compensation has also attracted attention at the federal level in Canada. Specifically, as Jane Taber reports in her Ottawa Notebook blog, a Liberal Member of Parliament from Ontario has introduced a “charity transparency bill”. Under the legislation proposed by MP Albina Guarnieri, all registered Canadian charities would be required to publicly disclose the salaries of the organization’s five highest-paid employees. Further, the annual salary of all executives would be capped at $250,000.
Continue reading ‘Canada vs. USA…No Hockey Involved!’
I am happy to announce that I am now a contributor to the Mission Connected Blog!
Mission Connected, which features topics of interest to job-seekers and employers in the nonprofit sector, is the blog of execSearches.com. ExecSearches.com’s job board has served the nonprofit, government, education and health sectors since 1999, helping to fill executive, mid-level and fundraising positions. ExecSearches.com’s goal is to be the most efficient, online source for connecting mission and talent.
My contributions to Mission Connected will focus on human resources and management issues facing nonprofit organizations. My first post is “Are Your Executive Compensation Bases Covered?” You can check it out here!
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