What does the Slavation Army CEO make? I don't know. One conservative media website reported that his income was a mere $13,000, which sounds noble and humble, but I think the truth is being bent there a bit. With a salary like that, their CEO would be living below the poverty line.
With this information in hand, it almost seems like a no brainer to give to the Salvation Army because it would appear that more of your dollars go towards helping people. Here's what might bother some people, a fact that I am only realizing recently. The Salvation Army is in fact a church, more or less. From the Charity Navigator web site:
The Salvation Army is exempt under Internal Revenue Code from filing Form 990 as a "church or convention or association of churches." As a result, we lack sufficient data to evaluate their financial health. We know many donors are interested in this organization and have asked the Salvation Army to submit their financial data to us for review, and they have elected to decline, as they are allowed under federal law.
So there you have it, the Salvation Army is a big evil church. Did I say evil? Those are your words, not mine. In this day and age it is increasingly popular to hate Christians, no matter what their denomination. So it isn't surprising that the Salvation Army downplays this fact heavily. Go to their website at salvationarmy.org and read their philosophy. It's not a bad philosophy unless you just like to rag on Christians because they believe in something you don't. However, despite all this Christianity, have you ever heard of the Salvation Army denying help to non-Christians or doing missionary work in order to convert people. I sure haven't. And since they aren't on their soapbox always shouting, "Be like us or go to hell," maybe they aren't all bad.
OKay, so despite my defense of the Salvation Army, you still prefer the Red Cross. What about that big salary? Well, the good news is that maybe in response to public outcry a year ago when this story really hit, Marsha Evans salary for the 2004 fiscal year was $450,008 as reported by Charity Navigator. Now admitedly, this still sounds like a lot of money to someone like me who is fresh out of college and scraping to make ends meet. Hell, it would be a lot of money to most of us. Let's put things in perspective a little bit though. The annual revenue of the American Red Cross is over three billion dollars. You don't just volunteer for the Red Cross and start managing that kind of money; you do need some buisness sense. On top of that it is a big job. Now does she really need all that money? Of course not. No one needs that much money. The question is, how much money is enough money for that position? It's a big job and probably stressful. If the salary were $100,000 (which still sounds like a lot of money to me, but I'm sure I know people that actually make that much), would she still do the job? Probably not. With the experience that it takes to be CEO of the American Red Cross, there are probably other ways to make more money. The average CEO in 2004 made something like $9.8 million. So it really doesn't sound so bad when Marsha Evans makes $450,008. If you want to learn more about CEO salaries, check out http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/. Or look at our sports heros and entertainment moguls. Howard Stern's new contract with Sirrius radio is $100 million a year and what great skill does he have?
So, what has been determined here? Nothing really, but it was a learning experience wasn't it? The truth is that no charity is going to be perfect, so try to go with which one suits your tastes and politics best. In addition to a charity's philosophy, try to look at the percentage of their administration costs. You can find more data on various charties at charitynavigator.org. And just a percaution, though the aflicio.org site is a NPO, be aware that it has its own agenda and to keep the data in context.
1 comment:
Here in Australia, the Salvos (as we call them) make no secret of the fact that they're a religious organisation and on any Friday night, you'll find them trolling pubs, asking all the drinking, smoking, slot-machine-playing sinners for donations. Yet at the same time it's commonly known that in situations where some kindly soul has won a lottery and donated millions of dollars to them, they've rejected it because the money has come from an ill-gotten source. Surely the people in hardship who need the charity of the Salvos don't care where the money came from?
Buy my personal number one reason why I prefer the Red Cross to the Salvation Army is because of a story I was told about one of the large battles of either WWI or WWII (I can't remember which). The surviving men came through, tattered and torn and wounded to an area where both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army were providing refreshments. The Red Cross were giving them cups of tea....the Salvos were selling it.
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