Nonprofits can afford to pay
Mar 12, 2012 | 1775 views | 1 1 comments | 7 7 recommendations | email to a friend | print
Dear Editor:

Councilman David Greenfield opposing the city charging so-called private nonprofit groups paying for trash and recycling is disappointing ("Pol: making non-profits pay is pure garbage" - March 8).

Before shedding any tears for private nonprofit institutions when they protest having to pay for trash and recycling, check out their respective organization finances, especially salaries to their executive management team.

Too many executives of nonprofit institutions earn a base salary of several hundred thousand dollars. Some even earn over $1 million per year! This is supplemented by bonuses, generous health plans, subsidized housing and retirement packages equivalent or greater than the president, governor, mayor, public officials, many private sector corporate executives, and ordinary citizens.

In many cases, these institutions pay excessive funds to public relation firms and lobbyists hired to go after grants from city, state and federal governments. Professional fundraising firms end up taking a greater percentage of donations actually meant for the nonprofit institutions. In many cases, the percentage is shocking.

In these lean times, executives of nonprofit organizations can set an example for others. They could take a pay cut and donate some of the excessive compensation or consider giving up some of perks to help their institution's bottom line.

Why can't the thousands of non-profit groups collectively afford to pay the estimated $17 million cost for trash and recycling? In essence, they are just recycling a small portion of the hundreds of millions they collectively receive in city, state and federal grant monies back to the public treasury.


Larry Penner

Great Neck
Comments-icon Post a Comment
March 13, 2012
Nonprofits can always resort to more grassroots means of promoting themselves, such as through Social Media: