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Vote! Cap the cash nonprofits can amass?
August 27th, 2008, 3:17 pm · 23 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
The Boy Scouts of America National Council has $629 million in publicly-traded securities. The Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana (owners of Trinity Broadcasting Network) has $327 million in mortgage-backed securities.
Should there be a cap on how much money nonprofits can amass?
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23 Comments
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Wow I love the additional language added to the voting to help ensure people click Yes. By making it sound like it is greed for these people instead of ensuring continued cash flow what type of response do you think you will get?
I would rather have a vote on the actually limit. I would say $500 million would be enough. (depending on the size of the organzation.)
of course… they don’t need billions and billions when hard working people who can barely make ends meet are handing over this hard earned cash. pre-tax or after-tax it doesn’t matter. the bottom line is very few of these charities are cash-strapped and they will only continue to be more power hungry and wielding the more money they save with interest, and can therefore buy politicians with.
Alan is right. Why are you going after the Boy Scouts? You have no right to question authority. The Powers That Be have a plan that you don’t understand and you should just go with it.
You should go after other youth service organizations, like NAMBLA. What about their finances?
You are hurting all the self righteous individuals who don’t like checks and balances and need to be part of something bigger to make themselves more important to those around them. Maybe the boys are too young to care, but you’re hurting the feelings of old men who still wear the uniform.
The more you pick on them, the harder it is for me to think for myself. I need someone to tell me how to think. Is it Les Baron? OCR? Satan? Now I don’t know who to believe.
What about values? The Boy Scouts teaches values. So does Mr T. He told me to be nice to my mother and to never lie. He didn’t look like a dork. He was BA Barracus. I could look up to him. I was nice to my mother, never lied, and never worked in Tampa and got involved in a membership scam.
Let’s compare the BSA executive salary to the salaries of another “kid” oriented OC organization… Children’s Hospital of Orange County.
CHOC is a major advertiser in OC Register and their community papers too.
So, they won’t post these things without having a phone call from their PR team.
The top paid executives at CHOC consume $4,369,374 in tax payer funds. The top paid independent contractors consume another $28,180,343 in tax payer funds.
Highest paid executives (consuming $4,369,374.00 in 2005)
(Page 9 of 32 appears to list Kim Cripe and Kerri Ruppert salary as zero. This unusual statement is also reflected in a statement on the Board of Directors. However, if you look at the tax return for Children’s Healthcare of California (a related organization), you will find the pertinent information. It appears that Ms. Ruppert chooses to post her salary related to CHOC on the CHC return. It is also interesting that the Children’s Healthcare of California return lists that Kim Cripe spends 2 hours per week working on the non-profit.
$1,101,159 - Kim Cripe - Chief Executive Officer - $846,394 in compensation, $215,965 in benefits, and $38,800 in expense accounts
$679,794 - Kerri Ruppert - Chief Financial Officer - $517,989 in compensation, $136,561 in benefits, and $25,244 in expense accounts
$630,424 - Maria Minon - Ex-officio Director - $441,664 in compensation, $168,489 in benefits, $20,271 expense account
$400,223 - Mark Headland - VP & Chief Info Officer - $311,194 in compensation, $79,342 in benefits, $9,687 expense account
$387,372 - Dana Bledsoe - VP Patient Services - $292,566 in compensation, $79,415 in benefits, $15,391 expense account
$384,629 - Margaret Conk - VP Business Development - $277,699 in compensation, $87,209 in benefits, $19,721 expense account
$280,331 - Theresa E. Gianfortune - VP Human Resources - $220,109 in compensation, $70,254 in benefits, $9,968 expense account
$271,990 - David R. Schinderle - VP Finance - $196,870 in compensation, $61,107 in benefits, $14,013 expense account
$233,452 - Steve O’Kane - Ex-officio director - $213,000 in compensation, 0 in benefits, $20,452 in expense account
I cannot see why these non profit *(so called non profit) organizations always complaint about having no money. If they are getting paid so high, they must have money, or they allocate most of what they receive from the government to themselves.
Tax payers be aware of this when props go to ballot.
Is the reference to Dr. Minon’s compensation the combination of all the Boards she serves on as a Director? Or is it all allocated to a single one without reference to the other Boards? Or, is that her “salary” to serve as the Chief Medical Officer?
Some of the Boards she serves on:
Latino Health Access
First 5 California
School Readiness
Ronald McDonald House
I just want to make sure we are representing actual numbers. Yes, I will be slightly biased if I do further respond to some of these organizations or Dr. Minon so I will not respond; however, I just want to make sure we are comparing correctly.
However, (and not to pull you off looking at Dr. Minon, intentionally) can we look at the security holdings of the organizations these individuals serve on/with and the dividends being generated compared to public contributions?
Personal Comment: I would like to place a personal opinion that Dr. Minon has done a lot for the Community.
Theres Alan again, different day, same ol’ comments. WE GOT IT, enough of your opinion, be quiet and let someone else talk. If this were basketball we’d call you a ballhog.
Let’s start by looking at where the tax payer money goes.
I have never seen a rank list of the 100 highest paid corporations by state government.
I do know that the hospitals are consuming alot of budget. We looked at one hospital, CHOC, alone. It looks like they are claiming $300-$400 MILLION dollars of tax payer funding alone. So, basically, even if you guess low and say $250 MILLION, they have cornered ONE BILLION TAX PAYER DOLLARS in the last 4 years.
THIS IS ONLY ONE HOSPITAL IN OUR AREA.
While I am certain that saving kids lives is important, the issue is how much work did this facility really do for ONE BILLIONNNN DOLLARS?
Did they save ONE BILLION kids?
no
We’re going to be looking at other hospitals in this area over the next weeks by looking at their tax returns also.
I’ll bet there is a billion here and a billion there… pretty soon it really ads up.
And, what about the hospitals in the other counties? I’ll bet this is a big problem across the entire state.
So, while the governator is talking about raising our taxes and while Spitzer is spouting, the reality is that they are BOTH still in office.
If someone wants to talk about stopping the financial bleeding, maybe they should put away the pen and stop signing the contracts?
Then, you look at the salaries of these people. You find out that while they post billboards about saving the “kids”, the only thing being saved is the bank (Wells Fargo?).
To answer Alan’s question yesterday about the posted salaries of CHOC executives. The listing I wrote was ONLY based on the guidestar published 2005 tax return.
I do not know Dr. Minon but I assume that if she had those other roles, then she is being paid by those other organizations also. I have no idea what is contained in the CHOC figures or if CHOC is interlacing their accounts with Latino Health Alliance and other organizations.
Minon does not strike me as a doctor though. Minon appears to be an administrator and director of the hospital.
There were only a few directors who were paid, and she was one.
I will do more homework on this person and see what I dig up.
To answer Alan:
I looked up Latino Health Access at Guidestar.
It was registered under the name:
LATINO CENTER FOR PREVENTION & ACTION IN HEALTH & WELFARE
The signatory is a person named America Bracho.
Minon’s name appears on the board list, but they do not appear to be compensating the board for the two hours per week that is involved.
In reviewing the tax statement, I note that they have provided an exemplary and exhaustive list of depreciating assets. One wonders where the hospital executives publish their list of assets and depreciation?
Since this thread is about executive compensation, there are three employees listed as getting paid. Since they are all getting paid less than one tenth of the executives at CHOC, it appears that Minon is taking her money from CHOC.
Here’s the listing of amounts:
America Bracho, President / CEO, $78,066, $0 in benefits, $0 in expense accounts in 2005. She was apparently given a raise in 2006 to $85,000, $6000 in benefits, $0 in expense accounts.
The top employees are:
Ginger Hahn, Director of Communications, $79,310 in salary, $2,200 in benefits, $0 in expense accounts
Leah Fraser, Director of POlicy, $60,000 in salary, $0 in benefits, $0 in expense accounts
Patricia Paez, Director of Eld.Adlts(?) $60,000 in salary, $0 in benefits, $0 in expense accounts.
So, given the facts, it appears that CHOC has 100 X the earnings of LHA. It also appears that Maria Minon is not paid by LHA. She appears to be paid primarily or exclusively from CHOC.
At any rate, the BSA executives appear to be getting five times more than LHA to run a program that is 10 times larger and impacts the entire community. LHA appears to be focused on Latino issues in a few locations. BSA is not ethno-centric in programming and is for the entire county.
LHA states that they had $343,245 in gov’t grants with $1.99 million in public support.
CHOC is getting 400 times more from the tax payers than LHA and is socking away $1.2 million a year for their CEO alone.
So, in the trade off, I would say that the hospital executive compensation in this county is more out of whack than the BSA executive compensation.
Furthermore, a true non-profit like LHA appears to be paying their execs far less than they could make in the private sector.
In reviewing the LHA return for 2004, I find a line which notes that the Executive Director even loaned her own money to the organization.
One wonders if Dr. Maria Minon could have used some of her CHOC originated funds to loan $20,000 to LHA in 2004.
CHOC should have donated funds to pump CHOC’s enrollment of a captive Santa Ana child in the CHOC monopolized clinic.
But, I guess they didn’t have the money at CHOC.
I mean, gads, $400 million a year in revenue at CHOC and yet you have America Bracho, CEO of Latino Health Access, being financially strangulated to the point that she has to loan her own money to the organization in 2004?
What is that about?
OC Watchdog should go over the LHA and ask them for comment!
How’s that enrollment at the Santa Ana Boys and Girls Club going y’all?
One thousand kids enrolled and how much goes to CHOC per month on their hospital risk pool???
Looks like very little of that money ever makes it to the street level at LHA !
Minon is getting paid $450,000 a year from CHOC to be “ex-officio director” on their board.
That’s more than Bracho’s salary PLUS the total gov’t grants for the ENTIRITY of LHA.
So, when you say that Minon is doing lots, I’d say she appears to be doing lots TO the community… not FOR the community.
jeez2m Says:
Theres Alan again, different day, same ol’ comments. WE GOT IT, enough of your opinion, be quiet and let someone else talk.
Feel free to add value to the discussion anytime…
Strongsidejedi,
A lot of non-profits struggle with managing assets. For one it shows through their own personal donations that they are sold on the benefits of the program.
When Les Baron took the role he pledged $160,000 over 4 years from his own money. This is shown on the 990s. This likely does not include other financial support him along with the entire Board continue to give annually as those donations are exempt from disclosure and for good reasons.
Those loans given by LHA Executives and countless others show commitment to the cause.
If reference to organizational holdings it is clear that these funds help ensure long term survival of these entities and the services and programs they provide to the Community.
Alan,
The definition of “organizational holdings” eludes me.
Are you referring to the assets in the accounts or the loans from officers?
The $200,000,000.00 of income from gov’t programs a year at CHOC is not an “organizational holding”.
If the hospital or NPO has that much money, they should be encouraged to operate off the interest of their “organizational holding” alone.
After all, even at a modest 5% interest rate, the interest income on $200,000,000.00 per year is a remarkable $1,000,000.00 per year.
Therefore, one executive at CHOC is consuming more than the total interest on their “organizational holding” per year.
The total budget for LHA is less than the interest generated by CHOC on their Wells Fargo bank accounts.
Actually that would be $10M
I would saw holding any funds more then meant to pay short-term financial objections results in huge loss of dividends.
My reference to bringing up the question on holdings was reference to the poll that started this article which implies do not ensure long term operational funding and should be all used up so the organizations like the Boy Scouts would disappear next year and the media can declare victory and go on their own retreat an spend millions.
Alan,
I think that you are overstating the issue. The Council is not going to go broke because it sold some assets. You might argue that it is currently in a very good position financially, but I’m not buying that any outside interference is going to trip up that delicate balance between being rich and going bankrupt.
So spending an extra $1M of an already limited $12M holdings will not result in a loss of another million in dividends over the next 8 years on top of the $2M that would of been required to maintain staffing.
hmmm. Ever hear of the Rule of 72?
OC Council added more staffing in the last tax return in an effort to focus higher management resources to fundraising under the impression that our recession/depression was going to be short lived. That was not the case so instead of taking chances with entrusted monies they let staff go - not an easy choice that you make it sound - at a savings of over $3M.
Now your idea of cutting higher management already reduced compensation do you really expect them to stay. Les Baron gave $160K to the Council when he accepted the job. In the real world do you think he would of had to pay to take a job?
Let us stick with the reality that short term spending is not possible when you do not donate $50,000 to help ensure someone might be able to keep a job.
Why are you talking about non-profits in your Taxdollars part of the paper, unless of course you are attacking the basis for which the BSA is a non-profit. As others suggest, look into CHOC. What about Saddleback Church that runs political conferences? And then there is the Catholic Church that has lots of $$ Aren’t they all the same in your eyes?
Maybe things are a bit slow at your dying publication and now it’s time to attack the BSA. Nice. Maybe you are jealous? Who knows but journalism is dead in America and their publications are following to the grave.
Ok, I read this article this weekend and fell down laughing as it clearly did not not add up:
Nearly 70 percent on programs (70.4 according to Alan - even funnier)
21.5 percent was spent on management
11.4 percent was spent on fundraising
EQUALS ~ 103%
Must be that US budget mathematics class I missed in school.
Why does CHOC purposely seem to seek out MediCal patients as opposed to private insurance patients ? The clinic is full of non- engish speaking hispanic kids. Yes, they need healthcare but where are all the other sick kids in Orange County ?
sara-
Take a look what I found on the California OSHPD website tonight…
Average Length of Stay is 6.5 Day(s) in CHOC versus 5.3 days average stay for California
Average Charge is $77,081 at CHOC vs. $34,392 average for California (OVER DOUBLE THE STATE AVERAGE CHARGE PER HOSPITALIZATION)
Average Charge per Day is $11,925 at CHOC vs. $6,486 average for California
Median Charge per admission is $51,194 at CHOC vs. $45,769 for California
strongsidejedi-
That’s very compelling , but were these comparisons for other Children’s hospitals for like services and care ? Where on the OSHPD website is this info I would like to check it out ? I know at one point you where pressing Teri to do a story on this. With all of the furor over California not having a budget passed, and our huge state public funding issues for all public services one would think this would be information that people in our county would want to know.
Since churches have become nothing more than an arm of (mostly republican) political parties they should lose their exemption entirely.
What falls under “Program”?
What falls under “Management”
Every Council has a fund in the bank (or in stocks/bonds, CD’s ,etc.)
drawing interest. It goes by various names. Are these Council funds included in the $500 million+ talked about in the article?
What is the Council’s share of the popcorn money? Surely at least 25%.