Poll: Should a CEO of a non-profit organization be drawing a salary of aprox. $500,000 per year?

[Douglas Carpenter]

39. No, but I can understand how it might happen

Many nonprofit organizations if left to their own dedicated staff - would have a lot of trouble generating the funds necessary to keep their organization running - much less expanding. For example I work for a hospital which caters primarily to an indigenous population who live on incomes well below what the U.S. government considers poverty. The hospital is broke and in serious trouble. If it were possible to find a CEO who was essentially a fund raising expert who could reverse the situation and generate the kind of income that would put the hospital on solid financial ground and even expand services, - how much would that be worth?

Fund raising, and grant writing have become highly marketable skills. Frequently a CEO is going be chosen on the basis of their ability to attact funds. The person who has the connections and the technical knowledge about raising money - especially lots and lots of money is going to be worth a lot to any nonprofit organization. If paying a CEO $500,000 a year means having someone who can turn a financially strapped organization into an expanding financially solid organization - might it not seem worth it?

Let me say, I am not morally justifying this. I am only pointing out that keeping nonprofit organizations well funded in an era of austerity - is a monumentus task and the technocrat who knows how to do this can pretty much write their own ticket. That is what things have come to.