The 50 largest charities in the US are ranked by total income. Several Christian organizations are on the list (and some organizations with Christian roots). For example World Vision is no. 11. No. 1 is the YMCA and no. 2 is the Catholic Charities of the USA. Just skimming through some of these is quite interesting, both for the % of total expenses spent on programs (subtract from 100% to see the % spent on admin), and the compensation of the highest paid official. Look for the only organization whose highest paid official was paid less than $100k. (You’ll find it about a third of the way down the list.) Also, only 3 orgs have highest-paids less than $200k… I’m not saying that being paid less is better; there is something to be said for competitive compensation, as Google made clear. But I wonder about places where the top paid is $1-million-plus. (Although it might make sense in an org that does $1 billion plus in income per year, as all of the top 17 do…)
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i need to read that article that you linked to – and will do tomm – but i just mostly skimmed a book called Uncharitable by Dan Pollatta. Great book about nonprofits versus for profits and the stigma that nonprofits get about stuff like overhead, compensation, etc. I think you would like it – got it at my local library.
I will hunt it up. Thanks for the tip !