People get very bent out of shape over execs at non-profits getting paid market-rate compensation. The issue is, if someone has a choice between running a 100-p

People get very bent out of shape over execs at non-profits getting paid market-rate compensation. The issue is, if someone has a choice between running a 100-person non-profit and being a VP or even CEO at a company, they might be willing to take a 50% pay cut, but they’re probably not willing to take an 80% pay cut. Now scale that to something like the Red Cross or United Way, where you’re dealing with thousands of employees and millions in donations. Or Mozilla Foundation, where people were mad that the CEO was making a few hundred thousand dollars a year in SF, where that’s the same salary a mid-level manager at a tech company pulls down. If you want competent people to lead your nonprofit, you have to pay them.