While much of the conversation about nonprofit pay focuses on how we are not paid enough given the work we do, every now and then someone will attract the wrath of the public for having what is considered a salary that is too high.  Honestly, I generally don’t share the indignation because there is never any context given to the numbers.   There are a few questions I think we should answer when deciding whether or not pay is excessive:

1. What percentage does this take of the organization’s budget? We accept that, as a rule, the larger the organization, the larger the salary but have we come up with a percentage that shows once executive pay reaches this point it can have negative consequences on the organization?
2. What is the overall financial health of the organization? Connected to the first question, have we established processes to determine whether the pay makes sense given how well the organization is doing and that nothing is being done inappropriately?
3. What is the treatment of other employees? The argument that high salaries and benefits should only be given to executives doesn’t sit well with me.  Talent is needed at all levels, so in order to recruit and retain the best throughout the organization, everyone should be paid well.
4. And of course, the biggest and kind of silly question that I like to ask: what’s the organization’s impact on the community it serves?  If they are doing what they set out to do, what’s the concern?

Without context, we can’t develop methods to defining and providing a competitive yet fair salary.  It becomes arbitrary and reveals more about how we expect nonprofiteers to only be in it for the love of social change without accepting that social change requires excellence, competence, and tenacity, not just warm feelings or sweet ideas.

We’ve done a great deal of comparing and measuring when it comes to classifying nonprofit pay as being too little. Why haven’t we done the same when determining whether it is too much (especially when, to be frank, it’s RARE.  High salaries are the exception, not the norm).

The outrage concerns me because it extends beyond the executive in question.  People begin to demand that the entire sector be checked and begin to doubt whether their donations are making a difference.  Feelings of mistrust, however misguided, fester because an explanation of the pay and and more rigorous debate of our expectations of nonprofits do not occur.

How do you determine whether or not pay is excessive?