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Blog - Pulling Back the Cloak of Secrecy

March 19, 2010

We have an image problem. At least it seems that way.

There was a blog in the Globe and Mail on March 16th about charities and transparency. Apparently an MP is putting forward a bill that would require charities to report their top 5 salaries each year and would cap salaries for senior executives at $250,000.

Now this is so unnecessary for so many different reasons. And I assume that any charity reading this would also think so. Ask a charity how much time it spends reporting in a year. How can people possibly think that charities aren’t accountable for the money they receive? Do people actually think that way? Apparently, they do.

As I scrolled down the page at the public comments, I started reading what people were saying. Here’s the first:
Good idea, the annual financial reports of these charities are a peer into a black hole! Administrative costs… no details. Salaries, but not number of employees. Fund raising costs!!!! etc.

I sat back and blinked a while and thought…“Whew! Surely, people know charities report all this on their T3010s and nobody takes stock in what this guy says.” Boy was I wrong. People get to click on “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on a comment, indicating whether or not they like the comment. 187 liked his comment! Ok ok, so maybe thousands “thumbs downed” the comment. Nope. Are you ready? 6. Six whole people disagreed with his comment about financial reports. Okay, maybe financial reports aren’t the best insight into an organization’s activities. I’ll definitely grant you that.

But here’s another comment:
Hey! Look! Something good from Parliament finally! 113 thumbs up. 7 down.

Or how about:
I think it is certainly a step in the right direction. Will it solve all the problems around charitable organizations? No but let’s start prying pulling back the cloak of secrecy. 33 thumbs up. Zero down.

Cloak of secrecy? Seriously? People! Here is a sample of what you can find online from Revenue Canada based on a charity’s T3010 submission each year.

Permanent, full-time employees.
The five highest compensated full-time employees (put into salary ranges – not the actual amounts).
Total amount spent on part-time employees.
All assets.
All liabilities.
All income.
All expenditures.
A list of the board of directors.
I could go on.

So what more do these people want?? Cloak of secrecy indeed. But guess what, charities. We have an image problem. And a big one, at that. If you think we don’t, then go back to the article and keep reading the comments. Some of them are downright militant. We charities know how much we report and how accountable we are. Clearly people aren’t bothering to educate themselves.

Going back to the article, I finally came across a comment that makes some sense. (It’s on page 5 of the comments – second comment – if you want to look for the whole comment.) Here’s an excerpt: “Would you rather pay a mediocre Executive Director a modest salary to maintain the status quo, or would you rather pay a dynamic individual what he or she is worth in order to tackle a pressing issue like homelessness or HIV/AIDS?” This is a great argument! Sadly… 11 thumbs up. 18 down.

It’s times like this where I lose faith in humanity. Don’t people trust charities? Studies tell us they do. But the thumbs-up thumbs-down unscientific straw poll doesn’t paint that picture.

It’s time we paint our own picture, folks. Apparently the world thinks we have a cloak of secrecy.

Posted by: Scott | In: IVC

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