Stop Glorifying Low Pay in the Nonprofit Sector

Working for a cause shouldn’t require sacrificing financial security

Recently, an organic food advocacy organization approached me out of the blue to ask if I was interested in researching and writing about a story idea they had.

I was interested. The work was in my first chosen field of food politics and right up my alley. When I said that I need to get paid, they asked me to suggest an hourly rate. It was nice to be approached by someone who knew and valued my work.

I considered my corporate consulting rate and my legal services fees, as well as what I had charged hourly to similar food advocacy nonprofits in the past, and landed on what I thought was a reasonable rate, while also leaving some room to compromise.

What I got back was not what I often hear when an organization or potential client can’t afford my rate: “I’m sure you’re worth that, but we simply can’t afford you.” That is the respectful response. I understand it’s not always a fit.

Instead, I got an essay about the personal sacrifices this executive director had made. He told me about his modest lifestyle, how he had chosen meaningful work over making more money, how much unpaid work he had done over the years, and how little his other consultants make.

He also brought up where I live, contrasting the cost of living in Los Angeles with his life in “farm country,” where they “really stretch a dollar.”

Then he added that we could all make more money doing something else. How he had walked away from corporate America to do work he believed in. That “money is highly overrated.” That we need enough for basic security, but that too many people “sell their souls” so they can buy a newer BMW, a boat, or some other thing.

Wait, what? Did I mention that he came to ME?

How did we go from a friendly conversation about working together to him judging me for asking for my worth? (Not that it matters, but our household has one car, a 7-year-old Toyota Camry lol.)

I am so tired of the culture of martyrdom in the nonprofit world: The idea that just because you are working for a “cause,” somehow that means you are supposed to accept financial insecurity.

We also have to recognize the privilege embedded in nonprofit martyrdom. Who can afford to work for less because the work is meaningful? Who gets to say that money is “overrated” because they are already financially secure? Those questions cannot be separated from race, gender, age, generational wealth, homeownership, caregiving responsibilities, student loans, and other factors that determine who has accumulated financial security and who hasn’t.

In fact, a nonprofit that underpays employees can perpetuate those very inequities. I don’t subscribe to that.

I ran a nonprofit myself. I know firsthand that nonprofit budgets are constrained and that organizations often can’t pay what corporations can. But I believed in paying people what they were worth. That approach allowed me to recruit and maintain a high-level staff. I remember going to bat for one employee who came from the corporate world because she believed in our mission. But she was also a single mom with a mortgage to pay, so I secured the raise she needed to stay. Doing work that matters and being fairly compensated are not mutually exclusive.

I also see the consequences of this attitude in my legal practice.

I have a client right now who works for a well-known animal rights organization and is making such a low salary that she cannot afford to pay me. She is living, in her words, “paycheck to paycheck.”

I had another client recently who was terminated from an animal sanctuary and has to pay me on a payment plan, even after getting him a modest severance.

Both of these organizations are based in California, so it’s clear that location is not always a driver of pay rates, at least not in the nonprofit world. These are people working for causes they believe in. Why should that mean sacrificing the ability to live a stable life?

The fact that your work has a mission does not make rent lower or groceries cheaper. It doesn’t eliminate the need to save for retirement or have enough money set aside for an emergency. And it certainly doesn’t mean that people should feel guilty for needing to earn a decent living.

People who work for causes are still working. They should not have to be martyrs to prove that they care.