Pay!

CEOs deserve to be paid professionally. That applies whatever sector you work in. I have no time for those who decry the level of salaries for CEOs in our charity sector. One of the great advances of the last decade has been the growth in the level of pay for charity leaders. Of course very so often one of our dear national newspapers has a pop at the pay of some charity CEO or other. Recently it was pay at RSPCA. These papers seem surprised we get paid at all.  It's the down side of the term “voluntary sector". They think we should be doing the job for free.

I take a robust line on this. No excuses or mumbling apologies for high pay. I remember the time over a decade ago when the top national charities were nearly all run by ex servicemen. They were able to take these top jobs because they had their pension from the time they had spent in the services. And they did a good job. A career in the services is actually a good grounding for senior posts. But the point was that so many other great people, especially women, were deterred from these posts because they could get so much higher salaries in the public sector etc. 

Now we have decent professional salaries we have a more diverse representation at the top. People from senior positions in industry or the public sector, and more women. 

If the bottom line is an efficient and effective organisation that delivers for beneficiaries then you want to attract the best talent. That means competitive salaries. And they may appear high, though nothing like the private sector or even some parts of the civil service or councils. So no apologies for that   

Every year acevo runs a CEO salary review. Hundreds of CEOs who have already completed the acevo pay survey 2013. This is extremely important as it provides us with a full picture of senior remuneration packages and also an aspect of the sector’s health.

Produced with Attenti, acevo’s executive recruitment consultancy partner, the survey is the largest of its kind, focusing on third sector CEO and senior staff salaries. This year there are fewer questions and we’ve taken on board CEO/Chair input in development so the questionnaire should be easier and faster to complete. The replies are completely confidential. Members can access the survey from the acevo website. 

But also we would like views from the  Chairs of organisations and encourage them to complete the survey so we can get an accurate picture of Trustee Boards:

Click here to access Chair survey

Click here to access CEO Survey