July 3, 2009
Nonprofit Salaries, and ‘Sharing the Pain’
I wish to congratulate you for your June 19 article “As Layoffs Mount, which Jewish Executives Shared the Pain?” and the corresponding editorial “CEOs Should Lead.” You have brought to the attention of the public the huge sums of money being paid to the chief executives of too many Jewish philanthropic organizations. As one who strongly believes in our capitalistic system, I certainly have no objection when large salaries are given to worthy CEOs of normal businesses. But being in charge of a nonprofit Jewish organization is completely different, since such groups exist to care for the needy, provide assistance to the impoverished and serve the community at large. There is such a thing as dedication, and those employed by nonprofit organizations should understand that extraordinary salaries are not the primary reason for being a CEO in this field.
Roman Kent
New York, N.Y.
The recent article on Jewish nonprofit executives, pay cuts and lay offs raises some significant (as well as debatable) issues as to how different Jewish organizations are managing their finances and staffing during the current economic crisis. However, publishing the salary figures of those executives named is an unfortunate addition to the article, contributes little to the topic under discussion and unnecessarily invades the privacy of the people holding those positions. The tally of those who did and did not take a salary reduction could have been made independent of disclosing the salaries themselves.
Since Internal Revenue Service regulations mandate that nonprofit organizations file a 990 form that is accessible to the public, one might argue that anyone wanting to know the salary of the CEO of a Jewish federation can get such information. Perhaps. But realistically most members of the Jewish community don’t surf the Web looking for the salaries of Jewish CEOs. And since the Forward simply quoted the salaries without noting the total budgets of the corresponding organizations, the meaning of the numbers is unclear. What percentage, for example, of the total operating budget of a federation is represented by those salary figures? Who decides if that percentage is or is not appropriate?
Those serving in CEO positions in Jewish agencies could, in most cases, probably earn much more in the private sector and have chosen to devote themselves to the Jewish community. The same is true for executives of Jewish religious organizations, whose salaries appear to be protected from public view by some IRS loophole. A little discretion and respect for privacy, such as most readers of the Forward would expect for themselves in terms of their own income, seems not a lot to ask from a Jewish publication.
Rabbi Richard Hirsh
Executive Director
Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Wyncote, Pa.
The Forward’s editorial was certainly correct to urge readers not to curtail their charitable giving out of anger over nonprofit CEOs who are not sharing in the pain of the economic downturn. But I will no longer be contributing to organizations that constantly dun me for money in order to pay salaries that are well over five times the size of my own. I will now be looking for smaller, better-run organizations that send more of my contributions to the people who need them.
Theodore L. Steinberg
Fredonia, N.Y.
How does a CEO of a federation or a major national Jewish agency define “sharing the pain”? Is it painful to reduce salaries in excess of a half-million dollars by 10%? Is it more painful to consider the numbers of Jews who are waiting in lines at Jewish food pantries and shelters and who have become homeless?
What about day school tuitions, which even the wealthy are struggling to pay? Have we considered the pain of Jewish community social workers, day school teachers, Jewish elderly-support counselors and federation professionals who are overworked and underpaid? These are the committed professionals who are engaged in the delivery of vitally needed services to the Jewish community. Their salaries in most cases may only be 10% of those of their CEOs. In many cases, these professionals have lost jobs, their hours and benefits have been cut, or they are being asked to take on more responsibility for less remuneration.
During my 15 years as a Jewish federation executive and professional in the 1970s and 1980s, the number of CEOs earning six-figure salaries could probably be counted on two hands. Have federations become so corporate in nature that these current salaries can be justified? I acknowledge the levels of responsibility and leadership that this army of CEOs must have to carry out their positions. But their compensation packages have reached levels that are not in sync with the humanitarian mission of the organized Jewish community.
The real pain has been inflicted on the thousands of Jews who are suffering in this economy and are on the wrong side of the inequitable pay gap that exists between workers and executives. Perhaps the entire system needs to be reevaluated and a determination made as to how to define fairness and equity in the compensation levels of our heroic Jewish professionals.
Avrom Fox
Chicago, Ill.
The writer served as executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester, N.Y., from 1984 to 1990.
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