$1 million dollars...?

read this ny times article today about nonprofit salaries and how people in our government are withholding funding to one because the executive director is getting such a large salary. now i first read this with righteous indignation...how could someone working for a NONPROFIT make up to $1 million a year? moab is the mecca for nonprofits (more here per-capita than in the rest of the us), and i know for sure that no one is pulling in that kind of cash. this reaction is fueled by two of my own life filters, 1) no one needs to get paid $1 million a year for ANYTHING, and 2) its a nonprofit people, why on earth are they giving all that money to just one person?

but i did sit with it for a while and actually asked that last question i posed. in working for two different nonprofits of late, and doing support programming for many others, i am coming to realize that the term 'nonprofit' does not mean a bunch of beleaguered hippies in birkenstocks running around trying to fix people's lives. i already did kind of know that, but i live in the concrete places of life and it helps me to SEE it in action to get it. knowing that nonprofits are businesses, and understanding that it takes a freaking lot lot lot of hard work to run one, i began to piece together a much less biased view on the whole situation.

if you want to be the best you can be to serve the populations you choose to serve you need to be powerful, organized, connected, and efficient. these are important qualities for any organization be it nonprofit, for profit, sports team, church choir...you name it. if you are a national nonprofit with hundreds and hundreds of locations and thousands of employees, donors, and volunteers...if you get millions in government grants that you need to apply for, and if your business includes being connected to some of the most powerful people in the country to get what you want, do you want some neo-hippie fresh from the peace corps waltzing in at 10am with a goatee and a latte (ps i have nothing against hippies, peace corps, going to work at 10am, goatees, or lattes)? no. you want the best business person you can muster with all of the power, connections, fundraising experience, and executive skills possible.

if the private sector places the value of such an executive at millions a year, what is wrong with a nonprofit saying they are willing to pay $1 million for that person? if i am a ceo at some major corporation making millions why would i go to work for peanuts somewhere else? i know that you can say 'morals,' but consider deciding to take only one tenth or less of your salary to do the work you do. not so cool huh? yeah, i know that these people make way way waaaaayyy more that you or i probably do (and if not and you are reading this please help to fund this poor wayward blogger - i will provide an address to which you can send checks), but if the market for better or worse places a multimillion price tag on that kind of work, well i suppose that morals can lead a person to take $1 million instead of $10 million.

do we have to suffer for our morals? is it not possible for us to make a good, solid living and still help those in need? apparently the government does not think so, as they held up the funding for the boys and girls clubs over the executive's salary. though that is not the only place lawmakers have opted for this approach. the americorps vista program, aimed at eradicating poverty pays even less of the paltry sum they pay its non-vista volunteers in the name of having the participants live like the people they serve. when you look at it one way you could argue that perhaps lawmakers should live on the average salary of their constituents. then again, i imagine that like the nonprofit exec took a pay cut to go from private to nonprofit, the senator could make way more than a government salary if he or she opted to sell more than their morals and health care plans to the people.

but i digress. i do think that it is reasonable for a person who wants to help others to ask that he or she be well cared for whilst doing it. after all, if we are trying to fight poverty why would we require that the people who are choosing to work to end it live in it? it seems oxymoronic to me. not only that, but isn't an ally a person who is in the 'power up' position of some social dichotomy, yet opts to work on behalf of those who are in the 'power down' position? allies are important in enacting any kind of social change. it is just as important for whites to be against racism and heterosexuals to be against homophobia as it is for blacks and gays to fight for their rights. i do not in any way want to indicate that these groups can't create their own change, but just that it helps to have others in on the cause. and in the case of poverty, its really really hard to create a lot of change for yourself if you are working 60+ hours a week to make ends meet along with raising your kids. it takes money and energy to help out. nonprofits can get the money, and they need to use some of it to harness the energy necessary to enact change.

so though i still argue that no one needs $1 million a year for ANYTHING, i understand that i do not control the market value of things (oh if wishing made it so). so if a nonprofit needs $1 million to entice someone to come kick some ass and make things run well i say go to it. plus, if you want to place value on outcomes, don't you think $1 million is better spent on someone trying to help people in need rather than shareholders? perhaps this IS a better value than i thought...

the year of the bear

i've seen four bears this year in my travels. one, a huge, hairy, ass running from my car as i trundled toward a trailhead; two, another enormous bottom high-tailing it uphill from my dog on a hike; three, a sleepy-eyed baby munching on berries alongside the trail; and four, a lanky streetwise night stalker looking to empty dumpsters in estes park. each sighting was a thrill to my senses, a chance to tap into the depth and power of the bear totem, the wilderness, and my own inner self.

i have proclaimed it the year of the bear.

so you would imagine that i was disappointed when i walked 26 miles through the rocky mountain national park and saw nothing of bears. no scat, no tracks, not even a sign warning that hikers beware. it was not that we did not think on bears whilst out there. we carried the correct precautionary gear (BEARVAULT 500v!), did the requisite 70 paces for cooking and storage, and made sure we did not hike in absolute silence (though that would be nearly impossible for mandi and i). with bears on the mind one might think we would at the least see something to indicate that bears were out there - but alas. mandi was pretty glad not to have an encounter, but i left the woods wishing for just a glimpse of my spiritual brethren.

and i came out to no calls about jobs.

once again this is something on my mind. each day i comb the websites...craigslist, higheredjobs.com, college human resource sites, NASPA...you name it. i tweak and change and retweak my resume, write cover letters like joss whedon writes fantasy stories, and meticulously package and email off application after application. for the moment i am coming up an empty inbox and indicators for carpal tunnel.

if this is the year of the bear, what the hell is going on?

i could blame the economy, my own naivete, my insistence on returning to student affairs after a four year sabbatical, or my ability to bullheadedly burrow myself into things without thought of the endgame, but in the end i think it's more like my insistent search for bears. the bears i saw this year had their own agenda, i just ended up in the right place at the right time and boom - furry, fearsome, goodness. i found these bears with no expectation. they were a gift from nature.

it's not to say that i did nothing to end up with these sightings. i still had to get to the mountains, walk the trails, look the right direction, and SEE. however, i did not go out expecting to find bears, just to have an experience, however that might unfold. it's like finally deciding you are no longer going to search for love and then meeting THE ONE the following day. my job search must include all the essentials for finding my bear - i need to get out, go to the mountains, take a walk and SEE - but i can't rush it, can't push it, and certainly can't conjure something from nothing.

walk, breathe, experience, look, SEE.

it's still the year of the bear. i've seen more this year than i have total in my life. i imagine i'll see more if i let go. i suppose it's time to include that philosophy into other aspects of my life, hard as that might be.

it's the year of the bear - little ones included.