If you followed my blog during the Charlotte United Way drama (when the Exec was essentially fired for making too much money), I made the point that it was the United Way Board who set the standard and, if blame was to be had, should be blamed. At the same time I maintained that the Board firmly believed it was getting its monies worth and the proof was in the till - some pretty successful fundraising on the part of the former Exec.
According to the Philanthropy Journal, Gloria Pace King "said in an exclusive interview with the Philanthropy Journal that she helped raise awareness about the need for better pay for nonprofit professionals.
"I tried to create an organization where people were paid and benefits are great," King said by phone the week before the Dec. 14 release of a task-report that concluded she had pushed for big increases in her pension despite concerns of a lawyer advising United Way.
The report also found United Way board's compensation and executive committees acted "without sufficient information, attentiveness, independence and sensitivity, abetted by a flawed process in which authority and responsibility were ill-defined and broadly delegated."
King did not acknowledge any wrongdoing over her pay or apologize for the size of the compensation package, which grew to include a $2.1 million retirement plan. She described herself as a visionary leader, not a fundraiser, King said she had raised over $500 million for United Way of Central Carolinas as its CEO. During that period, United Way increased the funds it raised in its annual campaign to $45.3 million last year from $18 million the year before King began her job in Charlotte."
While I generally am not convinced that nonprofit boards always know best, Gloria Pace King makes an interesting argument that some boards, guided by their execs, can know better. At the same time, I am not convinced that the pay and benefits Ms. King received and the drama that resulted is going to do anything to achieve anywhere near Ms. King's goal of "creating an organization where people were paid and beneffits are great." There is no evidence that the amazingly huge sum of money paid for Ms. King represents a distribution to the rest of the United Way staff, then or in the future. It is unlikely that the grumpy public that blew the whistle will let this happen.