Beth and Merritt with our friends
(Beth Clifton collage)
We are NOT the ASPCA!!!
This is an exposé (and appeal) that Beth & I really did not want to have to write, but one of our faithful & reliable donors of $8.00 per month persuaded us that we had to –– because donors like her, for the most part, are paying not only for the existence of ANIMALS 24-7, but for the existence of the entire animal protection & advocacy cause.
Millions of individual donors like her, and like you, contribute eight bucks a month, or many times more, depending on your income and ability, to dozens of animal charities each, around the U.S. and around the world.
For that eight bucks a month, or whatever you can afford, you expect hard work, dedication, and performance on a multitude of fronts: on behalf of wildlife, farmed animals, dogs and cats, horses, animals in laboratories, marine mammals, and the list could go on for quite a while.
Bo the dog. (Beth Clifton collage)
What you expect & what you get
That’s what you get from ANIMALS 24-7, in our unique dual role of watchdogging and reporting the news about animal protection & advocacy from a caring perspective, informed by decades of experience on animal-related news beats.
You see our work almost every day. There is no mystery or mumbo-jumbo about what we do, how we do it, and what results we get.
You might also have seen our IRS Form 990 filings, posted annually.
We each worked more than full-time in recent years for $9.71 an hour in wages and benefits, serving more than 593,000 readers –– and still ended up in the hole more years than not, because, unfortunately, not enough of those readers elected to make us one of their choices to get their eight bucks a month, or whatever, mostly not through any dissatisfaction with us or the work we do.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Not many ways to cut $8.00
Rather, for most of our donors, as for most donors to every animal charity, there are just too many hard choices to be made among worthwhile-sounding organizations and projects, with not enough ways to meaningfully divide eight bucks.
Posting the ANIMALS 24-7 filing of IRS Form 990 in our leanest years was an embarrassment.
We don’t like running deficits, even after squeezing and trimming all that we can. We did not want to have to post our IRS Form 990 and then pass the hat, especially when times were hard for everyone, not just ourselves, and even tougher for animals and most of the animal charities that try to help them.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Times not so tough for the 1%
But times never seem to have been tough at all for the 1%, including at the biggest, wealthiest 1% of animal charities, and especially not in their executive offices.
A few days ago we happened to have occasion to look at the recently posted American SPCA filing of IRS Form 990 for 2020.
The ASPCA is among the oldest humane organizations in the world, founded in 1866, and has been among the richest right from the beginning, when founder Henry Bergh passed his famously deep top hat among fellow New York City investors, industrialists, and socialites to get it started.
At the end of 2020, the ASPCA claimed more than $407 million in assets. Chief executive Matthew Bershadker took home $966,004 in pay for the year, including $856,673 from the ASPCA itself and $109,331 from ASPCA subsidiaries––which most donors would consider an excellent annual income by itself.
On January 10, 2019, ANIMALS 24-7 discovered from the ASPCA filing of IRS Form 990, and promptly pointed out, that Bershadker took home $804,372 in pay for 2017, including a bonus of $276,000, and received benefits of $47,859, for total compensation of $852,231––more than any two other animal welfare executives in one year ever
A year later, at the end of 2018, the ASPCA claimed $283 million in assets. Bershadker in 2018 was paid $712,397, plus $57,129 in benefits, for total compensation of $769,526.
For 2019, when the ASPCA claimed assets of $393 million, Bershadker was paid $762,996, but that was not the slight cut it appeared to be at a glance because Bershadker also collected $80,543 in benefits.
Artist’s conception of Matt Bershadker and friend. (Beth Clifton collage)
$966,004?!!!
We are singling out Matthew Bershadker as an example, because back in 2017 he became, by far, the highest paid individual for a single year in the whole history of the humane movement––and has broken his own record every year since.
His compensation from ASPCA subsidiaries alone in 2020, the year the COVID-19 crisis hit, killing a million Americans, putting many millions out of work and bankrupting hundreds of thousands, was more than the top salary paid by the majority of U.S. humane societies and animal care-and-control agencies.
But this is not to bash Bershadker himself, though we have significant differences with several ASPCA policies, all of them long predating his tenure, and question both his competence and accountability as a manager of humane programs.
(See How the ASPCA cooked 26 dogs in a truck: source comes forward.)
Bershadker has now been at the ASPCA for 21 years. Coming from a background in finance, Bershadker previously served as the ASPCA vice president for development, meaning he was a fundraiser, and then for a time was senior vice president of anti-cruelty programs, back before the ASPCA returned responsibility for doing anti-cruelty law enforcement––the first and oldest ASPCA mission––to the New York City police department.
Bershadker ascended to the ASPCA presidency on June 1, 2013, the first ASPCA president since Sydney H. Coleman, president from 1930 until his death in 1951, to have worked for the ASPCA in any capacity before being put in charge.
(Merritt Clifton collage)
Raising $57 million a year more than predecessor
As ASPCA president, Bershadker through 2020 had presided over more than doubling donated income and assets, achieving an increase in program spending of approximately 50%
The ASPCA, in short, at the end of 2020 was raising almost $180 million more per year than when Bershadker took over, so perhaps––from a strictly business perspective––he earned his nearly tripled increase in compensation over the preceding ten years.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Where did the money come from?
But why has the ASPCA been able to raise that kind of money in the first place, more than twice the combined annual budgets of every animal advocacy organization with a national presence back when we began reporting the news of the cause, back when the highest salary in the history of humane work was less than $100,000?
It is not because of anything Matthew Bershadker did, nor because of anything his predecessors did, nor because of anything his counterparts at the other big national animal charities did––certainly not by themselves.
It is because people including yourselves and ourselves, legions of eight-dollar-a-month donors and $9.70 an hour workers and volunteers, together built a movement.
Muckrake (n): synonym for crusading journalist. From right: Fred Myer, Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers), Cleveland Amory, Ann Cottrell Free, & Henry Spira. (Beth Clifton collage)
Muckrakes with poop-scoops
Among the earliest voices in what came together as the animal rights movement more than 40 years ago were journalists scattered around the U.S. and the world who as concerned and sympathetic individuals, working in isolation, fought with editors for the page space in which to report the news about what was happening to animals.
A big part of that ongoing series of scoops included covering why the big animal charities that existed even then––like the ASPCA––were not managing to make much headway against the entrenched animal use industries, nor even in promoting spay/neuter and adoptions, so distracted were they with their then-focal role of killing tens of millions of cast-off and stray dogs and cats each year.
Some of those pioneering journalists, like Cleveland Amory and Ann Landers, were already big names in the field. Some, like Amory, who started the Fund for Animals, Animal Rights International founder Henry Spira, and Humane Society of the U.S. founder Fred Myer, left journalism to start animal advocacy organizations meant to help steer the old guard in more progressive and productive directions.
Merritt Clifton & feline news source, 1984.
Building the animal news beat
A generation younger, I was among those who stayed on the animal news beat for many years with small newspapers serving small towns in rural areas, gaining first-hand knowledge of animal use industries at the same time as helping to build a growing audience for animal advocacy messages.
Later, as the audience expanded enough to sustain independent media covering the rising animal advocacy cause in breadth and depth, I served as news editor of one of the periodicals that helped to bring it all together into a movement. Then I founded and for 22 years edited a newspaper that took the message global––and, along the way, reached thousands of fellow journalists in hundreds of newsrooms, inspiring many of them to begin doing serious coverage of animal issues too.
Merritt, Beth, & The Dodo
Surviving the dodo
As electronic social media exploded in use and influence, that project went the way of the dodo and all newsprint media.
Beth & I together founded and built ANIMALS 24-7, reaching six times more people per year than any of those previous periodicals ever did.
But by now the animal cause is hundreds of times larger, served by a wealth and multitude of electronic media––and the more, the better. This expansion and diversity is what the animals have needed all along.
(Beth Clifton collage)
You are the economic foundation!
It is also what now provides the economic foundation for all of the multi-million-dollar organizations and multitude of overpaid executives, who have successfully capitalized on what was once just a small cause among many, and have turned it into a growth industry.
Millions of eight-dollar-a-month donors, and some $9.70-an-hour journalists, too, have accomplished all of this, and are continuing to accomplish quite a lot more, even as the biggest organizations make the most noise to donors, claiming most of the credit and raking in most of the donations.
We are not here to argue about what Matthew Bershadker is worth, or any other individuals––but if the top-paid individuals & organizations in animal advocacy are worth anything approaching $966,004 per year, surely we are worth a higher priority when eight-dollar-a-month donors have to choose which animal charities to help.
We are honored & grateful
We are honored by, and grateful for, the eight-dollar-a-month donors who have helped us and ANIMALS 24-7 to get this far. We only ask to have many more of them, and maybe a few who can donate more, too. Perhaps you can be among them?
Beth & Merritt Clifton
We guarantee we will continue make the best possible use of every $8.00, $80, $800, or $8,000 that you send us. We always have. We always will.
Thank you!
Please donate to support our work:
www.animals24-7.org/donate/
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Does he or did he donate any of that money back to help the animals?
This is not something that can be discovered from public records.
Ok. What a shame. Thank you for what you do!!!!!
In addition, the shame is that ASPCA has net Assets of over $307 million and last year had $26 million more revenue than expenses. That is $26 million profit while they are asking people to donate $19.00 per month to help them save animals. Their stats show that 1.5 million animals are killed in shelters each year. It looks like they could save them all by themselves. They should at least spend all the revenue they take in.
$852,231! This is so disgusting! This is a big reason I do not donate to these organizations. NOBODY!!! working in an organization, that is funded by compassionate donations, is worth this level of pay–NOBODY!!
Doris. I fully agree with you but then the animals suffer even more! It’s a no win situation. But maybe something can be done with more publicity on these matters.
Frank Raven, I’m curious as to why you conclude that animals would suffer if a CEO was not paid an absurd salary. I am not opposed to anyone being rewarded for their education and their excellent skills, however, the ASPCA is not, and never was, a *profit* business. In cases like this, consideration for where the funds come from and for their intended use, should be a top consideration in whether it is ethical to make a millionaire out of its CEO. I’m sure there is plenty of work that could be funded by the excess paid to make an individual human rich. I would wager a guess that there are plenty of individuals who could, likewise, do the same level of work while earning a lot less.
I am exasperated each time a lengthy holiday ASPCA fundraiser appears on television. Seeing the sad, lonely dogs is heartbreaking. This sadness is compounded by the fact that the ASPCA gives viewers the false impression that the organization is literally rescuing dogs and cats from the cold, and finding good homes for them, whereas that isn’t so. It is also exasperating that the ASPCA meanwhile does not support, and even essentially opposes, animal-free vegan eating and instead puts donor money into falsely promoted “humane” poultry/animal production.
Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns http://www.upc-online.org
It is sad. Doesn’t PETA do this too? Take the donations and doesn’t help “ALL” the animals they say they will?? Hasn’t PETA also been criticized for killing a lot of animals?
Not even Ingrid Newkirk herself makes a fraction of Matthew Bershadker’s compensation!
I will donate to the ASPCA when your ceo gives up 80% of his salary so the money actually goes to the animals! Pathetic and mendacious!
I certainly agree, I would definitely like to see those people that abuse these animals go to jail and have their pictures shown on television. For the CEO, you need to return all that money and do just what you want us to do DONATE TO STOP THIS CRULTY TO THESE ANIMALS THAT CAN’T FEND FOR THEMSELVES. SO TO THE PUBLIC STOP DONATING MONEY TO THESE SO CALLED ANIMAL LOVERS
Cliftons,
You cite that this isn’t a personal attack but let’s be fair here. If you’re going to attack someone’s salary you should cite why they aren’t qualified to receive it. Otherwise we’re just morally objecting to non-profits paying for qualifications. I submit hypocrisy is not lost when one is complacent of an executive making millions selling violent video games to children while objecting to a non-for-profit compensating an individual who would otherwise be worth that elsewhere. It’s this string of thought that keeps pharma from curing disease and non-renewable energy monopolies in play.
If we keep raising our children thinking that non-profits don’t pay for experience and education, how else are we going to change the world?
~Raven
From the perspective of having been familiar with the salaries, credentials, and accomplishments of all of the top-paid executives in the history of the humane movement, ANIMALS 24-7 can say with confidence that only three of the top-paid 50 or so ever demonstrated themselves to be capable of earning in the private sector what they made by heading humane organizations –– and Matthew Bershadker was not among them.
9 others at ASPCA earn over $300,000.00. CEO of HSUS earns about $400,000 and no others much over $200,000. Everyone should be able to get copies of 990 forms. Get them and read them please.
I work hard for my money and expect for it to go where it supposed to go and not in some fat CEO’s pocket. It’s people like him that stop people like me from supporting groups like ASPCA.
I love ANIMALS 24-7 and the great work you do to save animals. I wish the US was as appreciative of animals. I see animal cruelty non stop here it breaks my heart. I try to re-home horses when I can afford to keeping them from slaughter. Again I really appreciate your hard work and support for the animals. Bless your organization
These comments that all these people are making against the CEO making a $852,000 as a total salary and compensation – well, I agree with their comments. This company, just like any other company that wants people to give to a very good cause, are out of their minds to want hard working people to give while the CEO is making that kind of a salary. That is thievery no matter how you look at it. Just to line the CEO or upper management’s pockets. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to give when the upper management is making that kind of money.
I donate to many many animal rescues, K-9 cops etc. I have pleaded with the ASPCA to help animals in need in Oregon to no avail. What they pay their CEO is outrageous. So much of that money could go to help the animals instead of lining his pocket. Maybe more people would support the ASPCA if 90% of it didn’t go for salary.
The salaries paid to the people in charge earn are the reason I do not donate as much as I might.
I love animals and don’t want to see them suffer, but much of those salaries could be used to help the animals. If you love animals so much, your pay should not be your top priority.
It’s funny you mention the dodo, have you ever looked up the dodo on youtube? They seem to exist almost exclusively for promoting pit bulls.
WOW, what a salary! I am sickened to think that anything I donate would be to help pay his salary! l live in western Colorado. The nearest ASPCA is in Grand Junction Colo. I called their phone number and and reported animal abuse to dogs in my area. Of course it was to a recording machine. Nobody answered and NOBODY EVER called me back. I cannot send money to a humane organization that pays their CEO that kind of money but cannot respond to a critical animal abuse report! Is it because you can’t afford to staff your offices? GEE, I wonder why?
There is some colossal confusion here. The American SPCA (ASPCA), whose president received $852,000 in 2017, has not done cruelty investigations since 2013, formerly did cruelty investigations only in New York City, and since 1994 has operated only one animal shelter, in Manhattan. The ASPCA has never had affiliates anywhere else.
The term “SPCA” is generic. There are currently 1,282 other animal charities in the U.S. with “SPCA” as part of their name, all separately incorporated, responsible for doing their own fundraising. The term “humane society” is also generic, and is used by more than 3,000 independent animal charities in the U.S. alone; many more abroad. Using either the name “SPCA” or “humane society” implies no relationship whatever with any other organization.
Originally the term “SPCA” specifically meant a humane society with limited law enforcement powers, but few such humane societies exist in the 21st century, and none are anywhere near Grand Junction, Colorado. Animal abuse complaints in most communities must be made to either the county sheriff’s office or the municipal animal control agency.
I saw that the CEO gets over $800,000 per year. Not acceptable. Workers are not given a lot and they keep sending free stuff and asking for a donation. I think Mr. Matt Bershadker might want to give more to his employees and less for himself. Oh I forgot, this the ME GENERATION. It is all about me.
I wish as of now, I would not get another piece of mail from the ASPCA. I do not need address labels or anything else. I already told someone last year to stop sending me stuff. That is not where my donations need to be going.
It is not just large shelters this happens in. I formerly worked at a “premier no-kill animal refuge.” I was paid $8.50 an hour to start. After 5 years I made $9.50 an hour. No one was paid for overtime. We often put in 15-hour days. The founder, however, paid herself $72,000 a year, plus $36,000 a year to rent her property.
I am fine with a founder getting a fair salary. I just think everyone else should get proportionate consideration.
I live in Concord, California, in a neighborhood called concord Northwood.
When you first drive in to Northwood ( 1 way in and 1 way out) you will see some really tall pine trees and redwoods. These trees are where hundreds of egrets like to sleep.
They also started nesting there in the past few years. Well I am not sure if the parents push the babies out or if they fall out….but they all come down and get run over. Last season there were hundreds of them smashed all over the road. People do not pay attention to where they are driving.
Or they just don’t care. It is heartbreaking. I tried to call animal control or various places that are suppose to help wild life. And did not get one reply or even a person on the phone.
I will donate money to whoever comes and helps these poor baby egrets.
Your best bet to get some help with your local egrets would be International Bird Rescue, headquartered in Cordelia, California. But probably no wildlife rehabilitation organization would be capable of helping “hundreds” of any bird species all at once. Institutional prioritization among wildlife rehab organizations tend to focus on species scarcity, with endangered and threatened species getting first priority. Great egrets, snowy egrets, and cattle egrets are all protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but while great egrets and snowy egrets are relatively rare, cattle egrets are abundant in both the Old World and the Americas, and are concerned a “species of least concern” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Further, cattle egrets––who officially only arrived in the Americas in 1941––are considered an “invasive” species by ecological nativists, are resented by many birders for colonizing other bird species’ nests, and older cattle egret hatchlings often push their siblings out of nests, to monopolize parental care. Cattle egrets, in short, tend not to have many friends, even among the most avid bird advocates, despite being a very useful species for their contributions to insect control, and a readily watchable species. They do suffer, of course, and we wish we could offer more encouraging advice.
Yes that was one of the places I called. No answer and no reply.
Last year in Oakland, California, I think it was, a tree fell down that had a bunch of egrets and babies, and they were rescued.
It is just heartbreaking to see these babies get run over.
As far as these birds not being liked, that’s crazy! They should all be equal. These are pure white birds.
Thank you for replying.
Dori Dolgin
So I goggled “what did the CEO of American Red Cross earn/get?” What I found was that the most compensated Red Cross executive makes $720,000 a year. Whereas the CEO of ASPCA was given, from money donated to help animals, the staggering grand total of $853,232!!!!!! That’s enough to make me almost vomit!!!! The electronic social media explosion helped to make him a millionaire. I am currently posting daily my concerns about his pay on Facebook!!!! It SHOULD BE AGAINST THE LAW TO ALLOW SOMEONE TO BE PAID $852,372 thousand dollars that was donated!!!!! How many people did it take to equal the amount of money this man was paid ????. All of them thinking their money was going to help a animal!!!!
WHY IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE ASPCA GET SO MUCH ? THAT MONEY COULD SAVE A LOT OF ANIMALS! I WAS GOING TO DONATE TILL I READ THIS. ITS A SHAME !
I give every month to the ASPCA and the Humane Society but these so called CEOs and directors need to be fired ASAP. There is no reason they should be making the kind of money they are getting. Come on, man, $700,000 a year? That’s pathetic and how much of that are they giving back to save these precious animals ?????? They can laugh all they want right now, but when they stand before God one day they will have to answer for their greed and will spend eternity in Hell where they belong. Every one of them needs to be fired ASAP…………….and I pray for for their demise
Hello, SERIOUSLY, that is an UNMITIGATED DISGRACE if the head of the ASPCA gets that much money.
Exactly! How can he sleep at night knowing that money could go to others or the animals! Disgraceful!!!!!
I believe it would be of benefit to the animals if Beth and Merritt started to list some of the organizations where compensation and marketing is in line with the reality of donations and the organizations purpose. There are all volunteer rescues out there with very little resources, begging for donations. I belong to one in West Virginia. Steering donations away from these mega wasteful charities would be a benefit to the world.
For 23 years I did exactly what Anthony suggests, as editor of annual reviews of major animal charities published from 1991 through 2013. Each of the last 15 editions covered more than 150 leading charities. Unfortunately, though more than 30 million U.S. households give to animal charities, these annual reports never built a readership of more than a few hundred. From those readers, I heard two consistent complaints: that I did not give charities an excessively simplistic “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” to enable them to make decisions without having to think, and that at $25 a year, about 17¢ per charity listed, the reports cost too much of the money that purchasers preferred to give directly “to the animals.”
Upon launching ANIMALS 24-7, in 2014, Beth & I initially hoped to continue this project in an online format. We advertised it for four months, while discovering that keeping up with a 24-7 news cycle did not allow time for doing anything else as time-consuming (and non-lucrative) as the financial reviews of charities had been.
In those four months, only two donors––two!––asked when the electronic edition would become available. Only two more people asked about it after we reluctantly pulled the plug on the project. For further details on this frustrating and disillusioning experience, see https://www.animals24-7.org/2015/08/29/how-to-be-great-at-doing-good-why-results-are-what-count-and-how-smart-charity-can-change-the-world/
I HAD THE NEW YEARS RESOLUTION TO START DONATING AMONG OTHERS TO THE ASPCA. THANKFULLY, I DID MY RESEARCH. I FEEL DISGUSTED TO SAY THE LEAST. HOW MANY ANIMALS CAN BE SAVED WITH THE EXCESSIVE SALARY PAID TO THE CEO? I BELIEVE IN WELL PAID EXECUTIVES. BUT WHEN A NON-PROFIT IS SO UNMINDFUL OF THE BOTTOM LINE TO FORGET ABOUT THEIR PURPOSE… NO THANKS. I’D MUCH RATHER MAKE LOCAL DONATIONS TO GROUPS THAT STILL REMEMBER THEIR TRUE PURPOSE . SHAMEFUL!!!!!!!! YUCK!
What else can I say about these mutants. My friends told me not to give a single cent. Even an ex girlfriend of mine that works for UNICEF should be ashamed, but there is no shame ??
Unbelievable! How do they keep non-profit status?
I was checking expenses for charities, although I haven’t researched it as well as you. Do you know how much the ASPCA spends on advertising? I know this is very expensive, especially national TV, and they do a lot of it.
I think it has risen dramatically in the past decade, but don’t have complete information. Perhaps that’s why they increased their fund raising so much; but it may mean that a large portion of it actually went to the media for advertising.
Do you have any ideas on how to avoid giving the media, which is owned by a fraction of 1% of the public, a cut of the money people intend to donate to charity?
Thanks.
A partial answer may be deduced from inspecting the ASPCA filings of IRS Form 990 that are accessible at http://www.guidestar.org, but advertising expenses for any nonprofit organization are not neatly confined to any one line or heading, and are usually distributed among several different line items, including both fundraising expense and program service, within which specific amounts spent for each project are rarely stated. But trying to avoid donating toward advertising expense is a very naive and impractical idea in the first place, since every nonprofit organization needs to raise funds somehow, and even if an animal shelter, for example, does no advertising for fundraising purposes, it will still have to advertise animals for adoption. For small shelters, unlike the ASPCA, which does intensive image-building advertising that boosts fundraising, advertising animals for adoption is often the most expensive part of rehoming the animals.
You are both prolific and thorough, an amazing feat! THANK YOU!!!!
Dear Merritt,
I think you have been carefully following the Blue Cross of India’s work since at least the nineties and have visited our shelters more than once. You, therefore. are aware that i was a cofounder of the group, in 1959, that we registered in 1964 as the Blue Cross of India. Till 1987, we were a volunteer driven group with even our 24×7 ambulance services driven by off-duty Indian Airlines pilots. (Incidentally, Cleveland Amory’s Fund for Animals had donated most of the cost of our first large animal ambulance). We are fortunate that even today we have a group of professionals who donate their time and efforts on a purely honorary basis to look after much of the administration and special projects and rescues, thus ensuring that donations received by us go into helping animals without being eroded by “administrative expenses”.
Our General Manager Admin, Vinod Kumaar, took early retirement from a much higher paying Government of India job to work for us – on just about a total cost to the BCI of USD1,000 per month! The same with our GM – Rescues, Mr Dawn William, a former Black Cat Commando who has made some spectacular rescues! Many of our vets are paid more than Vinod and Dawn! Maybe that is why the BCI has received GuideStar’s Platinum rating for transparency since 2013 – only the Thane SPCA among thousands of humane groups has a similar rating and that too since 2021. And we are, arguably, the largest and most active animal protection group in India.
As a business man, I know we have to pay serious money for special talent but close to a million USD to head a charity???
In America, as Eric Hoffer put it, it is the destiny of every great cause to begin as a movement, become a business, and eventually degenerate into a racket. Outfits like the ASPCA, HSUS, PETA, WWF have pretty much moved fully into that last category. They have become just soulless, money-harvesting machines that specialize in sappy television commercials about how they just help animals and your contribution can “save a life.” Anyone who sends them a dime is just throwing their money away. There are plenty of good, small time organizations, the kind that are still in the “movement” phase and that can’t afford any slick PR campaigns or TV commercials — ones like SHARK, UPC, Center for Biological Diversity, local wildlife rehabilitators … and this publication for example.
Enough already with the shaming, the check is in the mail!
https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2020/131/623/2020-131623829-202123159349303387-9.pdf
2020 990 form shows revenue of about 325 million and revenue minus expenses of 57 million, which is 17.5%.
Total assets of 470 million
It shows that of the 268 million expenses, 55 million was for fundraising, 17.5%.
All this shows me is that ASPCA is just a money-making corporation disguised as a charity.
The IQ of the average American is 90-100.
People want easy, convenient, and feel-good. Junk food for the consicence-ridden.
In reality, in this as so much else, there is truly no justice. Just us.
Sharing, as always, with gratitude and all of the usual thoughts and emotions.
Unbelievable that some of these folks make more money than the President of the United States. It’s incredibly deflating to watch organizations turn into job factories, while so many of us conduct advocacy and boots-on-the-ground work at our own expense and on our own time. It behooves potential donors to conduct their due diligence before deciding where to contribute.
It would seem to me that the president and CEO of ASPCA would be embarrassed and ashamed of accepting such and exhorbinant salary, as well as the salaries of the other officers of the organization while most line level staff are being paid a paltry sum. Those line level staff are the reason for the success of the organization and the reason that so many donate what they can to care for those cats and dogs who are suffering and in such need.
Just wondering how much of his salary, and the other executives, they donate to the ASPCA to help those suffering animals.
There must be a way to curb these salaries, more in-line with other animal support organizations.