Charities need to rethink how they pay their executives
It’s hardly news that many charity bosses (AKA ‘charitycats’) are earning in excess of £100,000 a year but once again the toothless Charity Commission is bleating instead of acting. I’ve been complaining about this disgraceful situation for years and once again here I’ll highlight the particularly bad example I came to be involved with.
In May 2011, The Telegraph’s ‘Mandrake’ covered the story of how the Parents & Abducted Children Together (PACT) charity had paid “all but £9,500 of the money that it received in donations” to its founder, the “Chanel-clad” Lady Meyer, wife of the former British ambassador to Washington, and one member of staff who had been employed as her assistant. ‘Mandrake’ continued:
“[We] understand that Lady Meyer received almost 70 per cent of that sum”.
When asked for a comment about the £49,586 allocated to pay, the “ambassador’s sociable wife” responded:
“We are doing a huge amount of work for very little salary… I used to work in the City and earned much more”.
Meyer’s comments speak volumes and are illustrative as to exactly how far too many who seek to work in the ‘giving sector’ view charities. It is time such cash cows were slaughtered and once again today we were delighted to see ‘Mandrake’ make mention of this issue by publishing a fine set of comments from our very own contributor, Gina Miller of Miller Philanthropy.
Subscribe to our free once daily email newsletter here: