The public really do care about charity CEO salaries

In our research with the public through our awareness monitor CAM, we see that how charities spend their money really matters. Of course, there are those who say the public shouldn’t care about overheads and should focus on impact. Well you live in your ivory towers and we will keep trying in the real world that the public inhabit.

Last month, Joe celebrated the fact his son was starting his first job by reflecting on his 25 years in the world of work in a blog. This second part sees Joe sharing some tips he's gathered during his time as a manager.

It’s 25 years since I started my first proper job at Oxfam in 1988. By chance, my eldest son starts his first proper job at an oil refinery in July. So this has made me reflect on what I have learnt (and often failed to act on) in terms of management and people during that time.

A remark I made about impact reports being ‘turgid, dull and deeply boring’ hit the sector headlines recently. I was even mad enough to suggest that we should replace impact reports with tweets. I suspect some people read the article because they couldn’t quite believe that I meant it.

There is a cold war in the charity world.

On one side are the public and the vast majority of donors. The public don’t like admin costs, overheads and waste and they don’t like to think of their money going to anything but the charity’s cause. Our research at nfpSynergy shows this antipathy to costs and overheads very clearly. People typically think about 10% of their donation at most should go on admin and around 20% be spent on fundraising.

Getting a reference from a candidate for a job is almost as deeply engrained in charity sector thinking as equal opportunities. Yet the value to the recruiting organisation is deeply questionable. Not sure you believe me?  Ask yourself these two questions:

• How many times have heard you of a job offer being withdrawn on the basis of references?
• How many times have you told the whole truth about a candidate as a referee?

Between February 2011 and February 2013, we had a PAYE audit at nfpSynergy. If I live to be 100, I think it will still rank as one of the most painful, expensive, exasperating and protracted audits I experience. When we began the process, I could find virtually nothing in writing that prepared us for the compliance check that was randomly foisted on us by HMRC. Writing this is my attempt to help others be better prepared than we were.

Over the last decade a slow motion drama has unfolded between fundraisers and the public from whom they want to fundraise. As fundraisers have had to raise ever more amounts to fund the work of their organisations, they have blocked their ears to the voices of donors who have tried to tell them that they don’t like the techniques they now deploy.

We have told ourselves that a mild irritation is a small price to pay for raising the money that changes lives. We have kidded ourselves that the end justifies the means. 

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

There are certain words which in the charity world have gained a completely different meaning from the one they do in the rest of the world. Independence is one of them.