August 6, 2008 | 10:53 am

With hard times ahead, nonprofit CEO salaries increased

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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It makes the nonprofit world go round

There is plenty of economic uncertainty in the nonprofit world. But as the economy slowed in 2006 and it became clear charitable funds would soon slip, nonprofit CEOs saw their salaries increase.

Charity Navigator reports: “The top leaders of the 5,324 charities in America evaluated by Charity Navigator earn an average salary of $148,972. This represents a modest pay raise of 2.55% over the previous year studied, and is similar to last year’s pay raise of 2.34%.”

John Fishel, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, brought in $375,123, which I believe—though I should reference the tax records in my desk—was about the same as in 2005. Rabbi Marvin Hier, president and CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, received $249,215 in compensation; his wife Marlene, the center’s membership director, got $203,291.

Leading the CEOs of all charities in the field of Public Benefit was the head of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, with an ungodly compensation package of $908,927.

Just take a moment to think about how much money that is. In Cleveland.

High earners in the Christian community included executives at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association ($396,966 to Chairman Billy Graham), Trinity Broadcasting Network ($419,500 to President Paul Crouch; $361,000 to his wife, VP Janice; and $130,082 to their son, also a vice president) and Peter Popoff Ministries ($628,732 to President Peter Popoff; $203,029 to his wife, the executive business administrator, and;$182,166 to their son Nickolas)

Bored yesterday, I plugged into Charity Navigator’s database a few of the CEOs I deal with on a regular basis and was surprised to find that some made less than I thought, and certainly less than they would running a for-profit of comparable size. But their salaries remain nothing to sneeze at.

Hat tip to The Fundermentalist, who, in other nonprofit news, has a free link to the PDF of the annual “Power & Influence Top 50” just released by the NonProfit Times.