Today's Nonprofit Wonder - Executive Director Salaries

Last week, I read a Letter to the Editor in our local paper that really got me steamed. It suggested - well, it flat out said - that Executive Directors in nonprofit organizations shouldn't get the executive level salaries that get handed out in for-profit businesses. What???

I've worked in the nonprofit arena for over 20 years. Even back then the discussion was starting to come around to paying salaries that match skill levels...although it still wasn't put into practice very often. Certainly today we still have thousands of small nonprofit organizations that pay very little to their top earners - because that is all they have. And they've been lucky enough to find employoees that have such a passion for their mission that they will work underpaid. It's not pretty and it's hardly fair.

Now you come to organizations that are actually pulling in decent amounts of resources. Organizations that can actually afford to pay a skilled and experienced executive the going rate. Why shouldn't they be paid the going rate? Why would we choose to lose these leaders to the for-profit sector when we so drastically need them in our nonprofit world?

We need to look ahead - all the research shows us that there will be a tremendous loss of retiring nonprofit executives in the coming years. As our communities become stronger and more independent as a result of nonprofit activities, we must ensure that these same organizations stay stable and maintain the experienced leadership so needed.