Salaries & Non Profits

Buffalo Business First had a special insert in last week's paper titled All About Nonprofits: Featuring the 2007 Million Dollar Nonprofits (News blurb here).

There was all kinds of data included, but something that caught my eye were the salaries for the Executive Directors for some of the organizations. I understand that some of these organizations are quite large and offer many services, so I can see how an Executive's salary could creep into the six-figure range. I do wonder about staff salaries, though. Having previously worked in the non-profit arena, I'm well aware of the kind of salaries those jobs command. One hopes that the salaries offered to the people delivering the services are in a fair ratio to what the top executive of the non-profit makes him or herself.

• $209,139 Thomas Holt, President & CEO, Lutheran Social Services Group Inc.
• $199,688 Thomas Becker, President, Chautauqua Institution
• $138,384 Paul Cessana, Executive Director, Resource Center
• $94,943 Roberta Keller, Executive Director, Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc.
• $94,081 Ronald Sellers, President & CEO, Hospice Chautauqua County
• $89,128 Thomas Whitney, Executive Director, Southern Tier Environments for Living
• $88,946 Catherine Way, Director/Assistant director, Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System
• $80,308 Sue McNamara, Executive Director, Chautauqua Works (WIB Inc.)
• $70,502 Mark Eckendorf, Executive Director, YMCA of Jamestown