Frum non profit organizations disclosing financials.

look online to the IRS form 990, it breaks down the salary of the top ten employees

Joseph: The OP didn’t say anything about identifying individual charity recipients.

This is an obnoxious insinuation by do-nothing folks about organizations that do real work for the klal that they are doing things illegitimate. The fact is if your busy enough to be fotzing on the coffee room you probably dont give to much tzedaka anyhow. Too many people kvetch and complain and never would think about doing anything for anyone. The heads of Hatzola, Bikur Cholim, RCCS, Oorah, Bonei Olam and obviously the countless others can say a number for all i care. I’m not doing the work and I will only be thankful and show appreciation to the people to who take achrayus for klal yisroel. conversations otherwise are poor attempts to by lazy pathetic losers who are so blinded by their own lack of accomplishments in life.

@Haimy
The question of what a reasonable salary for the founder of a frum charitable organization may be absolutely meaningless. Many were founded by volunteers who never drew a salary. You need to ask what the paid executives of the charity are receiving as salary.

BTW>>>
A charity that pays its CEO 100K but only raises 1 Million is paying too much,
but if it pays 100K and raises 10 Million, the salary is a bargain

You got to the IRS.gov website and look up the 990

“Since when does anyone get all broigas about a comment not directly answering an OP?”

Never happened before…..the Mods strictly enforce rules requiring that all comments be directly on point and germane to the OP. Violators are subject to being severely trolled.

I personally disagree with those posters who say it is nobody’s business how much these executives make. I agree if the CEO is a hard worker and has a unique talent that no one else can do he should get a higher salary than the underlings. But the donors should also realize how much of their donation is going to that. I think many people would be shocked to find out the salaries of some of these execs. I am talking about $300K, $400K and above. When we ask our children to go out and raise money for these institutions realize how much of it is going for very very high salaries. There are others that rely much more on volunteers and minimize overhead as much as possible.

Recently there were a number of schools in one city that all decided they would be strict with tuition payments during COVID-19. Some parents fought back and disclosed the salaries of the principals which are over a quarter of a million$ each year.

Realize that many yeshivas file as a synagogue and therefore do not file 990s. Curious as to the ehrlichkite of that

A Yeshiva is a religious institution and isn’t required to file a 990. There’s no reason for them to go above what the law requires.

Catholic parochial schools don’t file 990s, either.

BTW- I just checked the 990s of one very popular tzedaka in the US. They do a lot of good but realize that the salaries of the top 7 employees totals $1,720,000 not including benefits. This organization reports $22 million in revenue. Another organization pays $248,000 total for its top executives with $42 million in revenues. That is a very significant difference. That was just one quick look at two organizations. If the mods allow I could let you know the names of both organizations and a lot more.

Disclosure keeps everything honest

It’s not only about honesty. Disclosure also tells you whether the management is competent.

Syag-The point of disclosure is to bring these points into the open and let the answers come out. If the head of the organization can easily explain why he deserves a salary of $457,681 let him explain. He may say “If you don’t like it, find someone else who can do a better job”. Principal salaries are determined by supply and demand. It is a beautiful thing when people running tzedaka organizations simply take a moderate salary but not required.

We can also look at from the other angle. Instead of people getting angry at the guy making $457,681maybe they will gain a greater appreciation of the guy who takes a $96,000 salary and has 96.5% of the money he takes in going directly to the program. Perhaps in will help people make different decssions as to how they allocate tzedakah when they see where their tzedaka money goes.

Another unfortunate factor in all this is the power of glitz and heartstrings. The reality today is that campaigns have a better shot at bringing in more money based on their marketing campaign and/or if they can present a more emotional unique story. The ideal (although I admit there is no absolute measure for this) is that more money would be allocated to what accomplishes a greater good. True this “greater good” is very very subjective but if you could make the case to people in a forthright honest approach I think many would allocate thier tzedakah differently.

I continue to insist that there is no such thing as a “non-profit” organization. Profit is the excess of revenue over proper expenses. Excessive salaries, payments to suppliers which are kicked back to top executives, and no-show jobs for spouses or children are distributions of profits, no matter what the operating statements say. IRS Form 990’s are a good place to start evaluating the efficiency of a charitable organization.

There have been some recent scandals involving Jewish charitable organizations, e.g., Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. We must be sure that our tzedaka is used for tzedaka.

@catch yourself,
The big difference is that if someone is a CEO at Southwest airlines / Walmart / Pepsi, the CEO salary and benefit package is set by the Board of Directors who are elected by the shareholders.
When I have Camp Simcha/ Tomchai Shabbos/ Masbia/ Hatzolah/ Project Yes etc.etc. hitting me up for donations I am a shareholder by donating the money and I am entitled to know if the CEO is earning a six figure salary and high end car lease on my chesbon.

@syag, the donations of $1000 and up I personally know the tzvek, [ kerem yisomim, person lost a job] or the organization has no salaried people such as Kupat Ezra in Monsey. The rest are easy to find out with 2 minutes of a read of a return. Yes I check it out same way I check out product reviews and TripAdvisor reviews other then a person coming to shul who I give a Dollar or Five.
PS read some 990 forms on some of the place you will find it very informative.

@ Syag, no, just to see where Dollar is going

I’m not sure I agree that Tzedaka organizations are analogous to publicly owned companies as opposed to privately owned corporations.

Either way, the point is that if an executive excels at his job, he deserves an excellent compensation package (just as any employee does).

If the CEO of a Tzedaka organization delivers outstanding performance for his organization, and, in order to retain his services, they choose to compensate him accordingly, I would be very happy for them all.

We can debate the definition of “outstanding performance,” if you’d like. I just don’t think that the executive compensation package is a good barometer in and of itself. I think all the regular questions of finance and meeting goals, delivering goods and services, etc. that you would ask of any other company are just as valid for a non-profit.

If, for example, a Kiruv organization is financially sound, provides a robust Kiruv program, and successfully brings Jews back on to the Derech HaTorah (whatever numbers you would consider success), wouldn’t the CEO of that organization deserve a large salary and good benefits (obviously, relative to the size of the program)?

I’m not intimately familiar with the finances of the organizations you mentioned, but I do know that they (at least some of them) provide services that are the pride of our generation. They are tremendous operations with huge budgets. If the CEO deserves to keep his job, he probably also deserves a great compensation package.

commonsaychel, it almost seems like you deliberately took my words out of context in order to post what seemed to you like a witty rejoinder.

Of course, what I said was that the services [these organizations] provide – not the salaries their employees earn – are the pride of our generation, which was to the point of the discussion about CEOs leading their organizations to success.

Coca Cola doesn’t market its product by advertising the CEO’s salary. One obvious reason for this is that, even if the CEO deserves his pay, that won’t motivate the consumer to choose their product over the competitor’s. They tell the consumer what he needs to hear: “Drinking Coke will make you appear to be the coolest person on the planet. You will always be ecstatic while drinking Coke. You will be surrounded by friends and celebrities, and you will drive the best cars. Also, Coke tastes really good!”

Likewise, a Kiruv organization shouldn’t market its CEO’s salary, no matter how well deserved. This is not what will motivate their potential donors. The marketing should be about how well they fulfill their mission, or about how cool it is to ride your bicycle to the mountains, or how great it is to play hockey, or whatever will bring in the cash.

I suspect you knew all of this.

To be clear, of course I think it’s important that non-profits should be fiscally responsible. Corruption is reprehensible and should have no place anywhere in our society, certainly not in Tzedaka organizations. I have no problem with people who research the financial dealings of these organizations. I think “sunlight” is healthy, and transparency is good.

All I was saying was that I agree with CTL that there is nothing inherently wrong with employees of non-profits earning generous salaries.

Charitynavigator does a great job analyzing all public documents and reporting things like,how much of every dollar donated actually reaches the intended recipients and how many cents per dollar it spends to raise funds..