What other charity bosses earn — here and abroad
Weekend • July 23, 2005
Val Chua and Jasmine Yin
[email protected]EVER since it was revealed that Mr T T Durai, former chief of the National Kidney Foundation, earned $600,000 a year — including a 12-month bonus — MPs, commentators and others related to the charity scene in Singapore have put their hands on their hearts and spoken fervently about the need for transparency.
All of them agree that the backlash might not have been so severe had Mr Durai not been so reluctant to disclose his salary.
So just why did the beefed-up code for institutions of a public character (IPC) — which includes charities — recently drop a key recommendation to disclose the salaries of the top three executives in each outfit?
This clause may eventually be reviewed in light of the NKF saga, but when this newspaper tried to collate information on just how much the chiefs of charity organisations are paid, it was clear that many were uncomfortable about making their incomes public.
Ironically, the reason for their embarrassment was not that their salaries were too high but that, in many cases, they were too low. Asians who really are paid peanuts do not want to scream that fact to the world.
An industry veteran said that making salaries of charity chiefs public could be a double-edged sword.
"Once there are salary disclosures, the public may realise that the CEOs are not well-paid after all. But the flip side is that there will be always people who think NGO (non-governmental organisation) chiefs should not be paid at all!" he said. "So disclosures may work for some, but not for others. It's a question of timing. Are we ready for it?"
Any way you look at it, Venerable Shi Ming Yi is an exception.
The chief executive officer and chairman of Ren Ci Hospital and Medicare Centre receives no perks or bonuses, earns $15,000 a month _ lower than the Durai yardstick but higher than most others in the field _ and most remarkably is willing to make it public.
The voluntary welfare organisation (VWO), which conducted star-studded TV show, somewhat like NKF, also has no problems disclosing that its annual income last year was $30 million and that its reserves can last three years.
"From Ren Ci's perspective, the more we explain and clarify, the more informed our donors and the public are of what we do," said a Ren Ci spokesperson. "Only then can we depend on their support and goodwill."
Others seem to echo the sentiment, but when the questions get personal, not everyone wants to broadcast the answers.
"We also have our sensitivities and there must be some safeguard of privacy (for those is the VWO sector). We do have many safeguard in the system," said Mr Ron Chandran-Dudley, president of the Disabled People's Association. He does not receive any remuneration but was quick to add that his personal financial situation permits him to do voluntary work. Not everyone may be in such a happy situation.
When asked about his remuneration, one senior VWO functionary was initially testy. "I am reluctant to do that," he said. "My staff doesn't know my pay."
Mr Gerard Ee, the president of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), which counts 230 members under its umbrella, gave some idea of how charity bosses were paid. "Take a CEO in a VWO, we look at his qualification, grade, and experience, and see how much he would be earning if he was in the government sector. Then we peg it a fair bit lower than that scale," he told Today, before he was appointed the new chairman of NKF.
"But I cannot be so definitive and say that a person in this job must be paid this much. If I am running a five-staff charity with 200 beneficiaries, the complexity and energy required is different from a charity that helps 1,000 people," he added.
When asked if Mr Durai's 12-month performance bonuses are in line with industry practice, he said such one-off perks are not common in Singapore.
"I've not seen it elsewhere in the VWOs. If you choose to have it, you must be in a position to explain to your stakeholders. If they don't welcome it, then you must be prepared to drop it," he said.
The Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF), which has come under the spotlight after NKF's well-publicised court case, underlined the point about just how unusual such bonuses are.
With an annual income of $6.4 million in 2003-04, this organisation pays its general manager Madeline Goh a monthly salary of $4,200. Like the rest of her staff, Ms Goh received a bonus equivalent to two weeks' salary last year.
Still, some may argue that Singapore's charities are too amateurish to be taken as a benchmark for NKF, which is in a league of its own in terms of professional fund-raising.
But a look at non-profit organisations in Britain - where the cost of living is much higher - shows that Mr Durai's $600,000 annual pay is still on the higher end of the scale.
According to a 2003 survey by SocietyGuardian.co.uk, the average pay for Britain's charity chiefs was £79,805 ($231,855), compared with a public sector average of around £100,000.
British Red Cross chief Sir Nicholas Young earned £125,000 ($363,159) in 2003, including benefits, while Mr Tony Hall, who heads the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, was the top earner in a list of 100 charity chiefs with a take-home pay of £205,000.
In Britain, charities are obliged to report the numbers of employees earning more than £50,000 a year in their annual accounts.
In the United States, on the other hand, Mr Durai's earnings will probably not raise an eyebrow.
According to Charity Navigator (www.charitynavigator.org), which reviews 4,200 charities, the average salary of a charity CEO is US$162,000 ($268,815), although it notes that some charities have unpaid CEOs.
Another charity watchdog - American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) (www.charitywatch.org) – has a list of the Top 25 Compensation Packages among some 500 major US charities reviewed. Mr Durai would not even have made it to this list which shows that the President and CEO of City of Hope/Beckman Research Institute Arthur Riggs is paid US$5.78 million ($9.6 million) a year. At No. 25 was Ms Marilyn Gentry, president of the American Institute for Cancer Research, who is paid US$497,434.
Apart from collating salaries, American charity watch-dogs also try to work out how efficient a charity is.
AIP, for example, seems to think it is "reasonable" to spend up to US$35 to raise US$100.
To put this figure in perspective, NKF said that it spends an average of $15 to raise $100.
Does Singapore need such a rating system for its 1,750 charities?
Observers say it is a good idea, but fraught with difficulties.
