What’s Wrong With A Salary?

I recently attended a service event with my son, organized by a group I’m affiliated with. The organization we were volunteering with was new to me, and I really enjoyed hearing about the work they’re doing and the impact they’re having on kids in our community. At the beginning of the day, one of its leaders shared the organization’s story – its mission and why the work matters. At one point, she shared a familiar point of pride: because the organization is entirely volunteer-run, every dollar donated goes directly to the mission.

And I understand why that message resonates. Who wouldn’t want every donated dollar to go directly to the cause they care about? But that message gives me pause, because embedded in it is an assumption that money spent paying people is money that isn’t going to the mission.

For much of the nonprofit sector, that simply isn’t true. The social worker is the mission. The teacher is the mission. The person running the food distribution program is the mission. And while it’s less immediately visible, the fundraiser who secures the resources, the finance professional who keeps the organization financially sound, and the leader building the organization are what allow the mission to happen.

The problem gets bigger when philanthropy reinforces this distinction. Funders understandably want their dollars to make a difference, but when “100% goes to programs” becomes the gold standard, nonprofits receive a pretty clear message about what donors consider worthy of their funding dollars, and salaries are often not on that list.

There’s also an economic dimension that rarely gets discussed. Nonprofit work is, well, work. The sector employs a substantial number of people in the St. Louis region. These are careers and livelihoods, and we need talented people to choose them and stick around. A thriving nonprofit sector can’t exist without a thriving nonprofit workforce.

There is absolutely something worth celebrating about volunteers who give their time and talent to a cause they believe in. Nonprofits can’t function without them. But perhaps “nobody gets paid” isn’t the flex we think it is. Maybe a better question is not whether a donation pays for programs or people, but whether it pays for what the organization needs to fulfill its mission. Because paying the people who make the work possible isn’t taking money away from the mission; it’s investing in it.

Sarah Plumb, MA, is a consultant with The Rome Group, specializing in grant writing and communications.