Goodwill Omaha defends executive pay in first comments since World-Herald investigation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Henry J. Cordes

The CEO of Goodwill Omaha made his first public comments Wednesday since The World-Herald’s investigation of the charity, defending its levels of executive compensation and confirming one of the newspaper’s primary findings: that its administrative costs are essentially consuming all of the profits from its thrift stores.

The nonprofit’s board also issued a statement indicating it was taking seriously the issues raised by the newspaper and the comments it has generated within the community and would take time to decide how to respond.

"The board takes the comments of the community seriously, and we are in the process of evaluating those as well as the issues outlined over the course of the three days of articles written by the Omaha World-Herald," the board’s statement read. "We serve voluntarily because we believe in the mission of Goodwill, and we will respond in more depth after we’ve had a chance to go through our due diligence."

CEO Frank McGree also confirmed the agency had been repackaging Chinese-made hair-rollers into bags that said "Made in America" but denied that leaders knew the rollers had been made overseas. He also suggested the work has now been terminated.

FULL story at link at bottom.

Also see: Goodwill Omaha executive pay: An investigative series: http://dataomaha.com/media/news/2016/goodwill/

Executive pay is high at Goodwill Omaha — higher than at other Omaha nonprofits, and higher than at most comparable Goodwills around the country. That leaves less store revenue to serve those in need.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/goodwill-omaha-defends-executive-pay-in-first-comments-since-world/article_8a3f3ac0-9bbc-11e6-9651-d35471a141c5.html

[Angry Dragon]

1. Back in 2008 I read that the Goodwill CEO in Portland Oregon was being paid over $600,000

the people out there were really pissed

[okaawhatever]

2. Close to a million bucks. They need to change their name nt

[Nitram]

3. Goodwill is a scam? Next you're going to tell me that Dump is not a billionaire.

Or is it mainly Omaha?

[mjvpi]

5. "But Mom, all the other CEOs are doing it"

[allan01]

6. this is why my late dad hated the charites . a friend of mine also told me how much these ceos made

many got a new car each yar acording to my old man.

[moondust]

7. New car?

I usually check Charity Navigator before making contributions: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

I checked on this "four star" charity a couple days ago:

Feeding America

Compensation of Leaders (FYE 06/2015)
Compensation..% of Expenses...Paid to..........Title
$377,619.........0.01%........Matthew Knott.....President, Interim CEO
Other Salaries of Note
$606,521.........0.02%........Robert Aiken.......Former Chief Executive Officer

It appears that in 2014-15 they paid out almost a million $$$ for two individuals, one of whom then quit his "job." That's the most obscene compensation I've ever seen for a "charity."

[tom_kelly]

8. Ridiculous

There are about 6 or 7 thrift shops in the town I live in and Goodwill is the most expensive of them all. Fortunately for me there is a thrift shop, staffed by volunteers, a block from me whose proceeds go to an animal shelter. All clothing is $2 each. Mixed in with the t-shirts are expensive name brands. I feel so guilty that I always pay more.

[Crash2Parties]

9. In California the execs are paid extremely high, but the charities are rated around 90/100

They also tend to do a lot of job training, which is what I was told is the actual purpose of the stores.

[pfitz59]

10. Go with salvation Army

their CEO gets paid minimum wage

[Shipwack]

12. I never shop or do anything to support the SA....

They take donated money and use it to fund political causes, like campaigns to stop same sex weddings... They ultimately lost that one, but are funding other initiatives.

[Quantess]

11. I donate my stuff to anyone except Goodwill!

In particular, Goodwills in Oregon are corrupt and charge way too much for their stuff.

[Vinca]

13. In NH there was a store manager who stowed all the valuable donations in his garage . . .

to keep for himself. Our local thrift store (not Goodwill) also has a problem with items people might want to buy going out the back door. Maybe there are just lots of sleazy volunteers these days. I also frequent church bazaars and charity fundraising sales that are picked clean before they open to the public.