Charity ‘Fatcat’ Salary Scandal

You would expect that the senior officers of our best known charities would be motivated by altruism rather than material reward. Not so! An investigation by Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph into the accounts of 14 charities of the Disaster Emergency Committee reveals a very different picture.

The table below shows the 2012 salaries of the charities’ CEOs.

Charity                                   Chief Executive Officer                    2012 Salary

Action  Aid                               Richard Miller                                      £88,933

Age International                     Michelle Mitchell                                 £90,000-£100,000

British Red Cross                    Sir Nick Young                                    £184,000

Cafod                                      Chris Bain                                           £87,567

Care Intl.                                Geoff Dennis                        £100,-110,000                                

Christian Aid                            Loretta Minghella                                £123,729

Concern Worldwide                Rose Caldwell                                     £60,000-£70,000

Islamic Relief                          Mohamed Ashmawey                         N/A (no employee paid                                                                                                           over £60,000 in 2011)

 Merlin                                     David Alexander (interim)                 N/A (highest salary paid                                                                                                          in 2011 was £110,000-                                                                                                            £119,999)

Oxfam                                      Dame Barbara Stocking                     £105,943

Plan UK                                   Marie Staunton                                   £90,001 to 100,000

Save the Children                   Anabel Hoult                                       £168,653

Tearfund                                 Matthew Frost                                     £92,000

World Vision                            Justin Byworth                                    £95,988

Although salaries are lower than remunerations in the private sector, 11 of the CEOs received more than PM David Cameron’s annual salary.

Many of these charities depend partially on public funds receiving over £1.1 billion in the past three years from the UK Government, the EU and the UN. They are not however subject to the same level of scrutiny and accountability as the government or quangos. This should be a real concern for ordinary people who make donations and work hard to raise funds for these organisations.

William Shawcross, chairman of the Charity Commission has been severely critical of charities failure to deal with executive excess. Speaking to the Telegraph he said: “It is not for the commission to tell charities how much they should pay their executives. That is a matter for their trustees.  However, in these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate, and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities.

Disproportionate salaries risk bringing organisations and the wider charitable world into disrepute.”

Well said Mr Shawcross.

Many Christians across the UK will be outraged by the obscenity of the inflated salaries paid to these CEOs, some of whom head up Christian organisations!! These people are literally stealing from the world’s poor and vulnerable. There is no excuse for this!!

In future when asked to give, I will have two questions:

1.    What are the aims of your organisation?

2.    How much is your CEO paid?

I will not be donating to organisations paying excessive salaries to their CEO.  Readers should consider doing the same.