1 post tagged “overhead”

I spent almost all of my 20s working in nonprofits and my husband has worked for Habitat for Humanity since 2003, so reading the following in the Nonprofit 2020 blog was pleasingly direct to me:

"To commit to a career in nonprofits is already akin to taking a vow of perpetual poverty.  The workers quoted in the first survey who complained about being underpaid are not seeking a 10,000 square foot vacation retreat, or a private jet, or millions in stock options.  Instead they seek a living wage:  enough to repay student loans, get a decent apartment, and take their families out for dinner and a movie now and again." [link]

Have you ever earmarked a donation, requesting that it be spent on programs and not administration? Have you ever rated a charity based solely on what percentage of its funds go to overhead?

Many people do, thinking they're "savvy" donors, but really they're buying into a gross oversimplification. A construction manager's salary and health insurance, his/her skills and his/her passion for building Habitat homes are worthwhile expenditures. A Habitat home is not just volunteers, 2x4s, paint and nails; it's made possible by a staff member who wrangles the hundreds of volunteers, the fundraiser who gets sponsors for the supplies, the grantwriter who dots every i and crosses every t.

At a museum, you can't spend money on the conservation of a painting or book without also paying a talented conservator. Clever writers and gifted designers communicate the mission of a nonprofit--but the financial rewards are significantly better to use those same skills to shill commercial products. The same is true for many, many, many nonprofit positions.

Some will choose to forgo the more extravagant financial rewards available in their field in order to do good and feel passionate about their work. They accept never earning what commercial carpenters or graphic designers can and do earn. But continually chipping away at nonprofits' overhead and administration costs, assuming those costs are unnecessary or wasteful without any basis, becomes a form of punishment. How much can you strip away from a nonprofit's employees before they burn out?

This isn't limited only to employee salaries, either, but is true of the tools of their trade, too. Quality safe tools on a Habitat job site, adequate computers and software in a charity's offices. These, too, are "overhead," but they are the tools required to achieve the organization's mission. If your favorite charity's newsletter editor has already accepted the pay cut necessary to work in the nonprofit field, is it also fair to expect her to do the job with a ten-year-old machine and sitting in the state's least ergonomic chair 50 hours a week? How many other ways do you want to hinder her success (and, thereby, your favorite charity's success)?

Okay, I'm off my soapbox for the morning, but hopefully I've provided you with some insight into this issue and maybe made you think a little more deeply about your expectations of nonprofits.

Want to do more than think about this? Great. Share this perspective with your friends and families. Send your next donation in earmarked for salaries or administrative costs instead and include a note that say "I love the work you do. Thanks!" Know someone in the nonprofit field? Ask them what one thing would make their job easier or give them more job satisfaction.

Thanks for reading and have a great day :)