A little nepotism may help charity CEOs enter the 300k Club

There's more than one way for a charity's CEO to nudge the family income toward the $300,000 range. Hiring the spouse works.

After recent columns on compensation of CEOs running charities, readers asked about other charities.

By far the most inquiries were about Goodwill Industries of Southern Nevada, where Steve Chartrand is the CEO. His salary was $153,200 in 2009, down from the $176,842 he reported to the IRS in 2007. When you add wife Mary Chartrand's salary of $86,500, suddenly the family income is around $239,700. She is human resources director and the next highest paid employee at Goodwill. They've worked together at Goodwill for 14 years, but a new nepotism rule would ban that today.

Brothers Walter Lescano, director of operations, and Guillermo Lescano, assistant director of human services, also are among the highest paid Goodwill employees.

A Goodwill nepotism rule passed in 2007 grandfathered in the Chartrands. With the Lescanos, there is no direct supervision by one over the other, so they don't violate that rule, explained Kathy Topp, director of marketing.

"We currently have about 400 employees and are projected to have about $19 million in revenue in 2010. We are on track to serve a record number of people in our community this year," more than 7,000, she wrote in an e-mail. "Yet our administrative costs are low. In 2009, administrative costs were only 10.9 percent of total operating costs."

A new employee at Goodwill is Dawn Gibbons, former first lady and the major gifts officer at the charity. Her salary was unavailable Wednesday.

One reader was interested in the salary of Kathleen Sandoval, family and youth program director at the Children's Cabinet of Reno and wife of gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval. Her salary for 2008 was $83,626. She's certainly not in the 300k Club.

Kathleen Sandoval, by the way, plans to continue working at the Children's Cabinet if her husband is elected. (More on that on my blog.)

The charities paying the big salaries tend to say the same thing: They serve a lot of people, serve them well and have a big budget with low administrative costs. Those are valid points.

The specific information is accessible by checking the Form 990s filed by tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations with the Internal Revenue Service, which has started looking more closely at CEO compensation lately.

The fastest way to get 990s is through GuideStar, the leading organization to help you evaluate charities. The website is www.guidestar.org, and while some readers had trouble navigating it, others managed. You can pull a charity's 990s for free if you click on 990s during a search. Other information is offered for a fee, but you don't have to pay to get 990s.

Of course, the forms would need to be accurate, and not all are. In 2007, the Las Vegas Review-Journal questioned the Las Vegas-based Miracle Flight for Kids about the fact that founder Ann McGee in 2006 paid herself a $196,000 salary and her husband was paid $51,000.

Her 2008 compensation was $223,795, but her husband's salary is not disclosed. The new forms specifically ask if any family member has a direct or indirect relationship with the organization. The "no" box was checked for Miracle Flights.

A call to Miracle Flights, which provides free flights to sick children seeking second opinions and medical care, confirmed that William McGee works there. A call seeking his salary was not returned Wednesday.

Between Ann and William McGee, it appears they're in the $300,000 ballpark, much like the CEOs for Three Square, St. Jude's Ranch and Opportunity Village.

There are plenty of charities that pay more conservative amounts. Let's consider a few in Saturday's column.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.