If you'd like to make a lot of money, you probably should steer clear of nonprofits. I've listed the compensation packages of some of the Lehigh Valley's top nonprofits below. These were obtained from 990 Finder, an online compendium of nonprofit tax returns. .You can use that site, too, if you are curious about a nonprofit I failed to list. If you learn something you'd like to share, please do so in a comment.
The wages paid to a nonprofit employee only have to be listed once they top $100,000. Most nonprofits are unable to afford that kind of money.
Nonprofits that can afford to pay higher salaries usually try to stay at or below five per cent of the total revenue. So the top three dogs at ArtsQuest only earn 2.6% of the total revenue. Alan Jennings, who is castigated frequently, receives a very low wage. It's only 0.7% of the revenue his organization raises.
PBS-39's Tim Fallon is listed as getting a third of his group's revenue. I believe there must be another organization that I missed.
Da Vinci's Lin Erickson and Allentown Art Museum's David Mickenberg are paid a bit too much.
ArtsQuest pays three people over $100,000. President Kassie Hilgert is paid a $172,452 salary and other compensation of $10,821. Senior VP Walter Keiper is paid $150,834 plus other compensation of $15,254. Senior VP Curt Mosel is paid $107,814 and other compensation of $16,437. This is based on total revenue of $17.8 million. Source - 2015 990 for calendar year 2015. Combined, these salaries are 2.6% of revenue
State Theatre's Shelley Brown - $153,750 salary on total revenue of $4,419,353. Source -2015 990 for period from 6/1/15 through 5/31/16. Brown's salary is about 4.5% of revenue.
Allentown Art Museum's David Mickenberg - $151,560 salary and $9,686 in other compensation on total revenue of $2,151,858. Source - 2014 990 for period 7/1/14 thru 6/30/15. Mickenberg's salary appears to be 7.4% of total revenue
PBS-39's Tim Fallon - $140,671 salary and $18,552 in other compensation on total revenue of $473,399. Source - 2015 990 for the period 7/1/15 to 6/30/16 Fallon's salary appears to be 33.6% of revenue.
Allentown Symphony Association's Sheila Evans - $134,025 salary plus $15,975 in other compensation on total revenue of $3,069,360. Source - 2015 990 for period 6/1/15 thru 5/31/16. Evans' salary is roughly 5% of the total revenue.
Da Vinci Center's Lin Erickson - $129,500 salary plus $6,624 in other compensation on total revenue of $1.49 million. Source - 2015 990 for the period 7/1/15 to 6/30/16. Erickson's salary is around nine per cent of total revenue.
Wildland Conservancy's Chris Kocher - $127,586 salary plus $7,362 in other compensation on total revenue of $3.1 million. Source - 2015 990 for 2015 calendar year. Kocher's salary is 4.3% of total revenue.
Discover LV's Mike Stershic - $125,000 salary and $30,167 in other compensation on total revenue of $3.8 million. Source - 2014 990 for 2014 period 7/1/14 to 6/30/15. Stershic's compensation package is about 4% of total revenue.
Allentown Rescue Mission's Jim Byrnes - $109,141 salary plus $9,057 in other compensation on total revenue of $3.5 million for the period 7/1/15 thru 6/30/16. Source - 2015 990. Byrnes salary is about 3.3% of total revenue.
Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley (CACLV)'s Alan Jennings - $101,336 salary and $47,050 in other compensation on $21.1 million in revenue. Source - 2015 990 for the period 7/1/15 to 6/30/16. Jennings's total compensation is 0.70% of the total revenue.
LV Habitat for Humanity's Deb Cummins - $98,373 salary plus $2,790 in other compensation on total revenue of $2.468 million. Source - 2015 990 for period 7/1/15 to 6/30/16. Cummins's salary is 4.0% of tital revenue.
Lehigh Conference of Churches' John Felch - $90,000 salary plus $917 in other compensation on total revenue of $4.6 million. Source - 2015 990 for calendar year 2015, Felch's salary is just about two per cent of total revenue.
National Museum of Industrial History's Amy Hollander - $57,894 salary plus $11,167 in other compensation. Treasurer Theodore Harlan earned $66,284 plus $3,907 in other compensation. Total revenues are $3,328,738. Source - 2015 990 for calendar year 2015. Hollander was replaced earlier this year. Hollander was earning two per cent of total revenue.
Beginning Over Foundation's Heidi Markow - $52,722 on total revenue of $577,427. Board member Helen Venturini also paid $52,777. Source - 2015 990 for calendar year 2015. Markow took 9.1% of total revenue as a salary, but in fairness, it seems like a small organization. .
Baum School of Art's Shannon Fugate - $57,001 salary and $3,139 in other compensation on total revenue of $1,166,348. Source - 2015 990 for period 7/1/15 through 6/30/16. Fugate's salary is 5.1% of total revenue.
Lehigh Valley Arts Council's Randall Forte - $46,000 salary on total revenue of $295,838. Source - 2015 990 for 9/1/15 thru 8/31/16. While Forte's salary is low, it is 15.5% of total revenue.
Historic Bethlehem's Charlene Donchez Mowers - Not listed. Under $100,000 on total revenue of $338,600. Source 2015 990 for 3/1/15 to 2/29/16.
Greater Easton Development Partnership's Jared Mast - Not listed. Under $100,000 on total revenue of $443,518. Source - 2015 990 for calendar year 2015
Third Street Alliance for Women and Children's Alisa Baratta - Not listed. Under $100,000 on total revenue of $1.744 million. Source - 2016 990 for unstated period. Filed 7/25/17.
Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley's Lori Sywensky - Unlisted. Under $100,000 on total revenue of $1,687,948. Source - 2015 990 for period 7/1/15 thru 6/30/16.
Nonprofit my ass! These bosses are profiting big time with these inflated salaries and benefits. These greedy execs load up their Board of Directors with cozy pals who rubber stamp pay increases despite the greater needs of their nonprofit mission. I will never give a dime to Artsquest or PBS 39 again.
ReplyDelete$47,050 of perks is pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteWonder what all that includes?
My guess is pension, health care.
ReplyDelete12:10, I consider many of these salaries modest or commensurate with the duties involved. I think only two appear to be excessive.
ReplyDeleteThen what do you think the salary of the county executive should be on a 400 million budget?
ReplyDelete4% is 16 million a year, sounds about right
ReplyDeleteShades of Properties of Merit & Sam "The Sham" Bennett! Lets see, the fish tank woman, Lin Erickson, wants 15 million for this project from the taxpayers of NC. At 9% compensation, we should just pay her $1,350,000; its cheaper than 15M. Even better yet, Easton is on hook for 2,700,000 for the fish tank lady. I wonder how much kick back is going to Peg Ferraro and Sal Panto? Oh, by the way, no more money for Channel 39's manager and the Arts Quest staff!
ReplyDelete"Then what do you think the salary of the county executive should be on a 400 million budget?"
ReplyDeleteIt's a 400 million budget, bur the revenue raised by the county is closer to $90 million. Having said that, the $85k annual salary paid to an exec is ridiculously low. He should be paid the same salary as a common pleas judge. That's $178,868. Moreover, the salary should be tied to an annual COLA.
These salaries are all pretty reasonable, although as Bernie suggests a few are on the high end. Realistically, a salary in the range of $100-120k is solid Middle Class territory. We've just gotten used to depressed wages and a hollowed out "middle class" that is slowly dying. A a few years ago I read this article, which does a good job of breaking down what it really takes to call yourself Middle Class with a straight face:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-05/what-does-it-take-be-middle-class
As you might suspect, not many folks can meet the qualifications nowadays.
Bernie - your numbers for PBS 39 are not correct. Annual revenues of over $5 million.
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_0Fv0BVwdd_d2h1bDVYNUNTaG8/view
The question is: what is the mean staff salary at these organizations?
ReplyDeleteI’m betting some hard working employees get by on working poor status compensation.
Is there any commonality between these people that would help inform those who wish to follow there example.
ReplyDeleteOther than complexion... hmmm
9:13 considering 100-120k solid middle class is absurd thinking. Key managers in private industry making 50-70k is middle class in the Lehigh Valley. The inflated salaries & cost of living in major cities like NY & Calif. should not be compared in any way to these non profit leaders. These people heading these organizations are making above comparable salaries for the upper middle class business leaders locally in comparable jobs.
ReplyDeleteObviously DiscoverLV receives too much of the hotel tax. Too much lehigh Countyn dollars are spent on South Side. There is life beyond the blast furnaces. Eliminate the pass throughs and give directly to organizations worth of funding.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the issue is what the leaders of these organizations are making, it's where the money is coming from.
ReplyDeleteIf the Board of DaVinci wants to give Erickson a million dollars, that's fine with me. If they can justify that to their donors, great. The problem starts when these organizations start looking for government funding, which comes from our tax dollars.
As soon as the government is involved, political purposes are injected into the equation and accountability decreases.
Don't believe me? Here are two quick examples:
1) If the aquarium project is such a money-maker, why does DaVinci need a dollar of government funding? They can develop a business plan to justify their project to a bank and get a loan of their own to make it work. Instead, they're going to the county for the money (our tax dollars), and no business plan is required.
2) How many millions of dollars of government funding has gone to CACLV over the decades? When was the last time they presented (or a governmental entity asked for) measurable goals to evaluate whether all the money was doing any good? If anything, it could be argued that poverty has gotten worse in the Valley as funding has increased for that organization. Yet every year the same entities keep shoveling the same money to the same organization, and even discussing accountability or cutting funding to CACLV is portrayed as being against the poor.
We could all cite our additional examples, but I think you get the point.
Anon 12:59 said:
ReplyDelete"Eliminate the pass throughs and give directly to organizations worth of funding."
If you mean people giving directly to worthy organizations, I'm with you. If you mean government politicians giving our tax money to their pet organizations, you've lost me.
Bernie O'Hare said (when talking about county executives)...
ReplyDelete"It's a 400 million budget, but the revenue raised by the county is closer to $90 million."
What are the (non-government) amounts actually raised by the non-profit organizations you list? Shouldn't the same logic be applied to them?
Also, I don't think it's wise to link the justification for a politician's salary to how much they can tax people.
Patriot2,you are closer to the business community than I, but i believe their middle managers and CEOs make far more $ than a nonprofit boss.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, when I was in the private sector, middle level managers made significantly more than many of the listed salaries. Actual regional management, which would be equivalent to some of these non-profit leadership positions, would easily make more.
DeleteAs to Patriot2's assertion that $50-70k is "middle class" in the Lehigh Valley, I would agree that one could get by with the trappings of a middle class lifestyle, but not the wealth- building, consumer powerhouse "middle class" of yore. My household income is somewhere around $85k, with my wife working and a young child. Yes, we can pay our mortgage and eat slightly better than rice & beans, but it's a precarious situation. Saving enough for retirement is a pipe dream. I've done the math, and the sweet spot is somewhere around $100-120k if you want to have a single-income household, put away enough for retirement, kids college funds, and avoid debt. $50-70k might be "median income" in the Valley but it's far from a true middle class life. Unfortunately today that seems to be reserved to the top 10-15% of earners. These are the times we live in.
1:44, Probably
ReplyDelete1:38, i agree with your first example. It is why i generally oppose any gov’t handouts. I disagree completely with your second “example.” While Alan will be the first to tell you he is fughting a losing battle, he and CACLV have made a big difference in the lives of many people. I could name a few who have become quite significant assets as a result of CACLV’s programs. I will refrain from naming them bc it might embarrass. But you are completely wrong on your second point,
ReplyDeleteWhy no Iannelli or Cunningham?
ReplyDeleteBecause they are not 501c3s.
ReplyDeleteIt pays well to be a poverty pimp.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNone of these individuals should be paid more than a "Bottom Feeding Blogger". I hold my blogger in high esteem. He shouldn't have to live in a apartment over the Army n Navy store like a commoner.
On a more serious note.......go back to when the salaries for Council and the Executive were set in the "seventies". If those salaries (which were approved by the voters) kept pace with the "CPI", the Executive would be making a wage in the 200,000 bracket and county council would be ten times what they are making now. I'm not saying they are worth that, I am saying they are under paid for their responsibilities.
In 2013, when LVEDC advertised for a finance director they were losted as 501c3.
ReplyDeleteI think you’re wrong. You provide no link and do not say who you are. I can tell you that neither LVEDC or the Chamber are charities. They are not listed as having 990s. The chamber is a 501c6 and LVEDC is another kind of nonprofit.
ReplyDeleteCorporate CEO’s clearly make more than the non profit leaders but these nonprofit leaders in the Lehigh Valley oversee small amounts of revenue far from corporate CEO’s. They equate more to local small business executives & on that basis are well compensated overall. I stand by my 50-70 as middle manager level incomes which with 2 income families puts them as upper middle class.
ReplyDeletehttp://lehighvalley.org/grow-here/financing-programs/
ReplyDeleteI am not interestd in Cunninghams salary. Just poinying out that they present themselves as 501c3. This limits their contributions to lobbyist to 10%.
Bernie
ReplyDeleteusing your suggestion of tying in the Executive of Northampton County to a Consumer Price Index you are talking about (approximately) a $220,000 Salary. That's calculated on a base salary of $55,000 in 1977. Council would also be getting approximately 18,000 for a salary based on the CPI. My numbers could be off a little, give or take 5%. I like the idea of paying them the salary as a Judge. That's fair.
I have since learned LVEDC is 501c3 and will be doing another post.
ReplyDeleteSurprised that there is no mention of the suits who run the two local healthcare monopolies.
ReplyDeleteHey Bernie, where does the cap of 5% of total revenue stat come from? Is it a national average? Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe Lehigh Chamber has a Nonprofit Tax Code Designation of 501(c)(6)
ReplyDeleteAccording to this, Iannelli gets $458K, which is 12% of the Chamber's expenses! https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/230337580
ReplyDelete"Hey Bernie, where does the cap of 5% of total revenue stat come from? Is it a national average? Thanks "
ReplyDeleteThat is just something I noticed while looking at these 990s.
"According to this, Iannelli gets $458K, which is 12% of the Chamber's expenses! "
ReplyDeleteThat is the TOTAL executive compensation. Tony's salary is around $200k.
The most recent 990 for the AAM lists the chief's compensation at 181,031 on 2,657,262 revenue. A 12.25% increase from the previous year. Must be nice...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allentownartmuseum.org/sites/www.allentownartmuseum.org/files/images/06-2016%20-%20Allentown%20Art%20Museum%20-%20Form%20990%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Bernie, whether you intended it or not this was one of your most illuminating entries. Stories have unintended results from what the author intended. People are aware you are protective of Iannelli and Cunningham but they are in this mix as well. It is hard to believe that out of a $458,000 compensation package his pay is only $200,000. That means his benefits are well over 100% of his salary.
ReplyDeleteIf their salaries are paid by their self funded boards or owners, good for them. However,the various 501's you listed expose a problem some of us have been aware of for years, the soft insiders game played by organizations funded by public dollars. These types of stories were killed by sympathetic editors.
You scratched the surface of this issue but it has been around for some time. They will ague special skills, knowledge etc. Yet the reality is connections. No one is indispensable. Most of these salaries are out of economic compensation parameters for revenue and organization size. Certainly, they are not 'middle-class'. The arrogance of that claim betrays part of the problem. You have handpicked boards shoveling cash at their leaders with little insight into accountability.
If silly boards, donors and employers want to give this wine and cheese circuit runners this kind of money, so be it but government officials should not pad their pay. In other words county officials should withhold any money to organizations that hand out these "pay packages' that most of the county taxpayers can't even come close to.
Seriously that Stershic guy has been handing out the same promo crap for ten years. Otherwise you see him at every cocktail party there is and I am sure all those costs are charged back to the organization. He is not alone. I will say based on service performed and revenue stream, I would agree with you on Alan Jennings, his organization is complicated enough and has a real community value component, yet he is at the compensation low end. The other 'compensation packages' are outrageous. No tax money until their boards clean up their acts.
Bernie, as a journalist you know your stories will have different results for different people. This is an issue I have been aware of for years. Since it is an insider game our local media has never really exposed it. You should be thanked for this. As I said you scratched the surface, this public welfare for the "party" class has gone on for years with no accountability just another way to shovel money to a few insiders by other insiders.
Iannekki’s other compensation is far below what you have posited. I am doing a new story.
ReplyDeleteAgain, whatever local business wants to pay Iannelli is their business. In many ways if it is all corporate/business money they can do what they want. The main take away is the abuse by those who approach government with their hands out on the way to their beach house..
ReplyDeleteI am curious if these salaries are for full time hours in all cases, or if some of the directors-particularly smaller ones- are working part time for those salaries.
ReplyDeleteAs a consultant, eg, would that show up in any of the 990 records?