News

Should the CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs Take a Pay Cut? Plus More: Friday’s Roundup

April 23, 2010

The chief executive of Boys & Girls Clubs of America will probably need to take a pay cut if the charity hopes to see the $425-million federal appropriation that has been held up by four senators who have criticized Roxanne Spillett’s nearly $1-million compensation package, Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University, writes in a Washington Post blog, On Leadership.

Allison Fine, a social-media expert and a Chronicle contributor, questions whether nonprofit groups have been missing an opportunity to use donations as a measure of civic involvement. She says that many experts wrongly assume that writing a check is too passive to be considered a measure of strong civic ties.

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The chief executive of Boys & Girls Clubs of America will probably need to take a pay cut if the charity hopes to see the $425-million federal appropriation that has been held up by four senators who have criticized Roxanne Spillett’s nearly $1-million compensation package, Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University, writes in a Washington Post blog, On Leadership.

Allison Fine, a social-media expert and a Chronicle contributor, questions whether nonprofit groups have been missing an opportunity to use donations as a measure of civic involvement. She says that many experts wrongly assume that writing a check is too passive to be considered a measure of strong civic ties.

“In fund raising, nonprofit groups should focus on what they can give their donors rather than what they can extract from them,” writes Katya Andresen, chief operating officer at Network for Good, on her personal blog. Ms. Andresen notes that it’s much easier to keep and cultivate a donor than to go find a new one and convince that person to care about your cause. (You can get more advice from Ms. Andresen in a Chronicle interview.)

What can philanthropists do to help solve the problem of unsafe water and inadequate sanitation, which kills an estimated 2.2 million children under the age of 5 each year? Writing in the Huffington Post, John Sauer, communications director for Water Advocates, says that a new U.N. report provides a road map for how donors can get involved.

Kelly Kleiman, a freelance writer who blogs at the Nonprofiteer, says she is wringing her hands over the Kresge Foundation’s decision not to offer traditional challenge grants for new arts buildings. The foundation’s focus on repairing buildings means its money will benefit groups that “got while the getting was good” but will hurt organizations that are just now contemplating a new facility, Ms. Kleiman says.

Writing in A Small Change, Jason Dick, a college fund raiser, says he is bothered when nonprofit groups talk about ending hunger and poverty. “Aren’t we biting off more than we can chew? We have had poverty and hunger since the beginning of time,” he writes. “Wouldn’t it be more practical to ask how can we provide emergency assistance that addresses the needs of the poorest in our community?”