The big conclusion from ACEVO’s Gathering of Social
Leaders, on Wednesday, was that our sector is still highly trusted by the
public. This is good reason to be bold in our public voice in the year before
the election. Ben Page of Ipsos MORI showed us how our sector is always trusted
by more than 60% of people, compared to politicians whose approval is never
over 20%.
The Twitter debaters on the day approved, and it’s clear
that despite the ongoing saga of CEO pay in our sector our public standing
hasn’t been dented. Ben Page had a nice summary of the dangers of being
defensive with the press on issues like this; he paraphrased George Bernard
Shaw to say “Arguing with the press is like wrestling a pig. You both get dirty
and the pig likes it.” Wise words indeed – they even made
it into a diary column.
And the CEO pay story is back again this week. The
Belfast Telegraph are writing about CEO pay in the 40 largest Northern Irish
charities, many of whose leaders are ACEVO members (or members of our sister
organisation CO3). They’re asking for the names and pay levels of their CEOs.
As part of our sector’s push for full transparency I thought I’d share their
questions with you:
“I am
a reporter with the Belfast Telegraph.
I
rang today but you were out.
I'm
doing a story about charity chief executive's pay and have been asked to survey
40 of Northern Ireland's main charities about what they pay their chief
executive/CEO.
Could
you tell me who your current chief executive is, what their current
salary/salary band is (or was in the most recent financial year).
Where
charities don't disclose these details, we will be reporting this.
If you can respond before
tomorrow evening that would be great.”
Good of them to give us so long to answer…
On a more serious note, this is the kind of story that
diverts from the important issue of whether pay is judged as good value by
charity beneficiaries, donors and staff. We of course need to be accountable
and transparent about pay. And providing all agree it is good value for money,
then our time is better spent looking at the results our sector achieves.
Shaw tells us quite clearly; there’s nothing to be gained by
wrestling with pigs!
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