The two presentations overlap in conveying information about the past, present, and future of nonprofit pay. The first presentation, for the emerging leaders, also offers a brief overview of executive compensation in the sector, as well as a primer on pay for performance approaches. The second, for established executives, provides recommendations on ways to enhance their organizations’ pay and performance management practices.
Emerging Leaders
Executives
Each of the conversations branched out in several interesting discussions, some of which I’ve touched upon in previous posts, and all of which were worthy of further discussion. You may find the following related posts of interest:
New York City’s Harlem School of the Arts, a nonprofit institution which for nearly half a century has offered children and young adults training in dance, music, theater, and the visual arts, locked its doors on April 1st. A decision on whether or not the closing will be permanent is expected next week. The story has attracted considerable attention from the media, including multiple stories in the New York Times and the New York Daily News and on WPIX. It has also triggered emotional reactions from the community, including former and current students and parents. A Facebook group started by supporters of the school has grown to over 1,300 members in two weeks.
Nonprofit effectiveness is not necessarily measurable in financial terms.Much of the media coverage and public reaction has highlighted strong feelings and opinions on the part of the community as well as current and former administrators and board members. There does seem to be a general consensus among the media, public, some employees, and even some former board members that the school’s downfall resulted from an extended period of fiscal mismanagement. Parents in particular have been very vocal about their lack of confidence in the abilities of the current board, and while the board is seeking at least $500,000 to reopen for the remainder of the academic year, parents and other members of the Facebook group are suggesting that donations not be made to the school until such time as the board is replaced.
While one New York Times story highlighted a number of specific financial issues, including questions about the school’s failure to meet the benchmarks of a $1.5 million grant to strengthen its financial, marketing, and fundraising efforts, the use of a $1 million mortgage taken on the school’s building in 2007, and nearly $500,000 in payroll tax arrears, it failed to provide what I could perceive as a complete and objective look at the problems that had befallen the institution. To satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to take a look at the most recent form 990s as well as the media reports and other publicly available information. In this post, I want to share some of what I found to be some of the most notable data and patterns from those findings, as well as some questions that my findings raised for me and that might also be on the minds of those interested in the school, including students, parents, donors, and funders. Continue reading ‘By the Numbers: Harlem School of the Arts’
In this video, nonprofit executives and board members are reminded of the risks associated with not having a formal executive compensation policy and provided with guidance as to how to strengthen their organization’s governance of executive compensation.
A recent survey found that 73% of nonprofit organizations have a formal policy to review executive compensation. As a human resources and management consultant to nonprofits, what I found striking about this statistic is that it means 27% of organizations do not have a formal policy. Continue reading ‘Are Your Executive Compensation Bases Covered?’
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’
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.
Then my curiosity was aroused when I learned of proposed Canadian legislation that would require reporting of and place a cap on the compensation of charity executives in that country, and so out popped “USA vs. Canada…No Hockey Involved!“
In the meantime, the story of Senator Grassley’s inquiry into an organization’s executive compensation and other financial practices led to a fairly impassioned debate in the nonprofit community, and my analytic bent led me to “Executive Compensation at Boys & Girls Clubs of America: A Closer Look “.
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?
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!’
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!
Done by People is the professional blog of Joe Brown, Principal and Founder of Slope Resources, LLC.
Slope Resources provides a range of human resources and organization management consulting services to nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes. More....
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