Donations during Christmas

Donations during Christmas

By:  Sam Loy

Humans typically want to look out for each other. In fact, $358 billion dollars were donated to charities and nonprofits in 2014. But where does all this money really go? Looking the top salaries of CEO’s in these nonprofit organizations and charities, the numbers can be surprising. Going eleven years strong, the CEO of UNICEF comes in with the highest paying salary per year, at $1,200,000, meaning only $0.14 of every dollar goes towards the cause. In second is The American Red Cross, with their CEO making $651,957 per year (plus expenses). This means about $0.39 goes towards helping others. The third highest paid CEO of a nonprofit was United Way, making $375,000 per year, lifetime use of two golf courses, a yacht club membership, and 3 Major company gold credit cards, averaging $0.51 per dollar. Rounding out the top four is World Vision, with their own CEO making $300,000, with an included fully paid house with complete luxury furnishings. About $0.52 of every dollar is donated. These sums seem like a lot, but what CEO of a charity or nonprofit got the least? The Salvation Army’s Commissioner makes $13,000 per year for running the 2 Billion dollar organization. This means out of every dollar, $0.93 is donated towards charity. Maybe next time you slip a dollar to the nice old man ringing the bell, you’ll be able to appreciate what he is doing a little more.

Information about the charities mentioned was obtained from:   http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/charities.asp

 

Additional information:  http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42#.VmraatIrLcs