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Accountability, Compensation and the Anti-Establishment Mindset

2/21/2014

2 Comments

 
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 In most nonprofit religious institutions the organization has justifiable concerns regarding the misuse of charitable funds and protecting the common good. Nonprofits are largely self-regulated entities, offering an opening for abuse at the hands of unscrupulous individuals.

In Pagan institutions, we tend to be even more suspicious of the use of our funds. The Pagan movement grew out of the anti-establishment movement. "Establishment" to these activists was not simply the people of the older generation, but the existing power structure in society; the dominant groups in society and their customs or institutions; institutional authority; and those who formed the “ruling class.” In other words, those who had control of the money. Is it any wonder then, that Pagan communities today share an inherent distrust of money, or those organizations, individuals, or leaders who ask for it in return for their goods and services?

Yet, there is a growing movement among the Pagan community to change that mindset, particularly among the newer generations of Pagans. It is understood that there is a desire among our leaders to give the appearance of protecting the common good and that many factors have combined to create pressures on our leaders to provide accountability, especially in the area of compensation. We feel this is a good thing. Accountability is absolutely necessary. However, we also feel that the time, energy, knowledge and experience of our leaders is valuable and that too many of our elders, leaders and organizations are not being fairly compensated for their work.

This has been true of religious organizations from all denominations, not just Pagan ones, as much as any other. To alleviate concerns about leaders or organizations not being honest about the use of funds there has to be accountability, and there are ways to do that. Some other organizations have already done this work for us, we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

In response, the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations, sponsored by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, issued “Enhancing Accountability for the Religious and Broader Nonprofit Sector.”

“Enhancing Accountability” offers six recommendations for religious and charitable organizations. They are:

  • Regardless of the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and related regulations, the governing bodies of nonprofit organizations should ensure that the compensation (including benefits) paid to leaders is clearly reasonable under the circumstances.

  • Nonprofit organizations should adopt appropriately robust policies that provide clear and practical guidance for establishing reasonable compensation for leaders, properly address conflicts of interest and guide them in avoiding making excess benefit transactions.

  • When a nonprofit engages a compensation consultant to assist in obtaining appropriate data as to comparability for executive compensation, the members of the body should exercise prudence and diligence that the data is for similarly situated organizations.

  • Nonprofits should require that total compensation of their top paid leader is disclosed to or approved by the governing body of the organization.

  • One or more independent organizations should conduct compensation surveys of the largest exempt religious organizations.

There you have it! A universally acceptable way to create policies for the compensation of the leaders of your organization. Its time to stop treating money like the bad guy. We won't have a good relationship with money until we learn how to treat money like the tool it is. It can be used for good or it can be used for bad, the difference is in who's hands it is wielded. The responsibility for accountability is ours.





2 Comments
Jessie Olson link
2/25/2014 07:04:02 am

It has not escaped me that Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability is a Christ-centered organization. Until the Pagan or secular communities can come up with similarly equitable principles for compensating our religious leaders,I chose to not throw the baby out with the bath water.

There are a lot of things that Christians do well, acquiring money is definitely one of these. Managing money sometimes less so but they have developed many tools that, if used properly, can be extremely helpful.

I was raised more or less Pagan in a very anti-establishment household. I never "left" the religion of my birth because I wasn't really raised in a Christian church, though some family members made occasional attempts to convert me over the years.

So, maybe I don't get the negative backlash against Christianity. To me its just another religion among many. I have no special dislike for it and many of my friends are Christian ministers.

What I do see is opportunity passing us by because we are too afraid to touch anything with a Christian label. Don't let fear hold us back. Tools are tools. We can pick and choose from them just as we do in eclectic traditions, its really no different. Choose a tool that's useful, then choose to use it ethically.

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Rory link
2/25/2014 08:25:33 am

Transparency and accountability should not be a doctrinal issue but the board of directors needs to take its job seriously and adopt policies which it has the will and ability to monitor, report back on and enforce. Having recently helped turn a non-profit around, my own experience was that moving to frequent reporting and something very close to a "fully open books" policy not only brought my board members and volunteers around, but dramatically increased awareness of financial issues in our organization, with an increase in donations and volunteer hours as a result.

When one clearly identifies who gets paid and exactly what, people notice. The good people will step up and the shysters will see they have no chance of pulling anything.

The board needs to be clear and fierce, however, and willing to "do the work" of establishing systems, monitoring them and reporting back to itself and the membership.

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    Jessie Olson, our President, has been a Pagan for over 20 years and a leader in the Pagan community for the last 12 years. She holds a Masters degree in Psychology and lives in Northern California with her life-partner, Craig.

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