17 Responses

1. Anywhere between 350,000 and 850,000 is reasonable.

   Less doesn’t poss, and more is nisht batampt.

2. Feif un,
   I think he’s referrring to executive director’s salaries. What is a reasonable salary?

3. What does the median US income have to do with anything. The person is administering a multi million dollar company, which happens to be a non-profit that promotes and offers education etc. The salary should be comesurate with the function, generally it will be less than a for profit company, but why should the person who is could be making a lot more in the outside world get substantially less? There are IRS regulations that discuss how much the salary can be.

4. some of out mosdos tzedaka have executives (not always fundraisers) making over 400k http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/990finder/
   its all public – see for yourself! (FYI: not all mosdos file, and those that do, have ways of avoiding this info.)

5. can anyone explain the problem. not chapping.

6. If someone runs a fortune 500 company – he makes a huge salary. Are our children’s Neshamos worth less?

   If the person is doing a good job & the Mosad is flourishing – pay the guy a nice salary!!!

7. Its very simple if you don’t want half of your tzedakah money to line someones pocket. don’t give to that tzedakah.

8. Clearly some executive directors could easily make several hundred thousand in other positions, and add much more than that to the institution they work for, and others add less value than the salary they take.

   I suspect the question centers on the conflict of interest, given the mention of the director also being the founder. One way of solving the conflict of interest is the use of a board of independant directors (balei batim and/or rabonim) who decide/veto his salary.

   Problems can easily arise when the founder has ‘all the keys’ to the decision making and decisions are often not made objectively. Someone working l’shem shomayim should be willing to answer to a board that can veto his decisions – given that it is a community institution. (In contrast to a private business where the boss can decide what he wants as a salary)

9. pashute yid

   thank you for explaining. i appreciate it.

   but doesn’t everyone already know that all $$ that gets collected atleast 75% goes to the employees and bosses.

10. People do have a right to know what is going on with the mosdos- especially when ” community ” schools are taxing parents to the hilt with various fund raising obligations- Building Funds which never end- Capital Funds which are an obligations- purchase of vouchers- etc.
    We do have a right to know what the “administrative ” costs of the mosdos are!
    While some schools tax returns are public as a matter of public record and can be found through the web- others skirt this obligation in different ways-

    It is high time for transparency by our mosdos – especially when they keep coming back for more and more!

11. mosdos should be open with us (their donors) where / who the money WE give to THEM is going. Some mosdos have big fancy offices, big salaries, fancy cars etc – all coming off of your donations. This is not ehrlich, and is possibly geneyvos dass.

12. Refering to #13:
    This is why I’m much for careful about which orginization I send money to. No more donations over the phone, so the caller gets a cut.

13. Like some that drive Acura RLs and buy houses in Lake Forest and then have the chutzpa to tell a parent making $75K and paying 4 tuitions “If you can’t afford it, take out your child”

14. I have always felt all tzedokah institutions (that is, any institution or organisation that regularly asks for support from the klal) should be required to publish its full annual financial records and include the percentages that it pays the collectors, for advertisements, its administrators etc.

    It should be entirely transparent – many of us would be shocked for a while (it’s unlikely that even half of your gelt actually reaches the real cause) but we’d then quickly establish a norm for percentages for drivers (in London drivers take 30%), collectors, advertisments, mailings, accountants, processing fees (many tzedokah vouchers are converted to cash en mass through brokers who give (say) 80% of their worth) – and any organisation who is (say) using unreasonable collectors who charge too high a percentage would quickly be called to account.

    This information should be present on vaad hatzokah certificate in the form of a uinique ID, that could be used to look up all this information at a vaad hatzodkah office.

15. The writer needs to be more specific int4eh type of mossad beign discussed. Let’s say he is speaking of a Yeshiva. the rebbeim get $50,000. The Secular Teachers get bubkas, the office staff get haaf a bubka, telephone, insurance, electiric, food, etc, etc. All the money raised is going for “expenses” and not the cause? There is no cause?
    there are only expenses. What does the Executive Director/Founder get? A Rebbe works 5 hours a day 6 days gets $50,000. so the Founder who works 20hours a day 6 days gets $200,000.

    For all the other types of Mossdos, like medical research- the salaries of the researchers is the “cause” the problem is how much the executives and office staff take.

    lgbg–How can you make such a statement that “everybody know that at least 75% goes to the employees and the booses”! Do you know what you are talking about? Do you know that the Chafet Chaim states that when someone says “everyone know” they are for sure going to say LOSHON HORA?

16. faymemmemlamed

    no i did not know that. thank you for telling me. i appreciate it-really.

    i’m sorry i didn’t mean for it to sound lashon hara in any way.

17. ayidisheneshomo , I can relate and unfortunately have recently faced a shock similar experience to yours. I can only wonder; why is it that the Chasidish Yeshivos are able to keep tuition fees down and any Heimish or Litvish girls school keeps raising tuition and fees by the year? I understand that teachers need to be paid and appreciate the need for tuition to be paid appropriately and on time, but the continuous raise in tuition with extra fees makes it next to impossible for parents to have a good night sleep, due to steep bills. I’m curious how the chasidish yeshivos can pull this off? My friends in the chasidish community pay mearly a fraction for their children’s tuition.