The curse of focusing on overheads in charities

I think this is a great talk about charity. I work for two charities and live in the frustration of small scale and the desire to keep the overheads low. Now waste in overhead is always a bad thing but I cringe when I hear people being classed as overheads. Yes trim the budget on the travel by making sure people take the most reasonable train option but don't fire your face to face workers. Just because their face to face work involves talking to donors not clients. Your people are the real strength of any charity. please pay them a fair wage. If we believe non-profits serving communities deserve the best people doing the best they can. Then we need to pay a competitive wage. We can not short cut our way to success in the non-profit sector. We need to invest in growth and advertising.

I have two lingering questions from this talk

"Is there a limit on what is reasonable to pay a charity worker or CEO?"
"Can charities increase giving by they way they work or do we need a shift in cultural attitudes? Is it possible for charities to do this?"

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