Your Posh Office over My Salary

I've been working in the social sector for a couple of years. Right now I'm working at an educational NGO - which I joined about 7 months ago. So far, it's been an amazing place to work. The work is enriching and the people are great. There's a set of people who've been there for 10, 15, 20 years... and have no plans of leaving. There's another set of people who come, work for 1-2 years, and move on. And there is the third set - those that have "worked in the corporate sector, left the cushy jobs and joined an NGO to try to make a difference."

Within a the first 2 months of me joining, 2 people in this third set decided to leave after working at the NGO for less than a year. Dealing with the pay cut was a lot harder than they expected. I understand their point of view. It's just really sad to see them leave - because they were extremely sincere, passionate and qualified. This is what they want to do - but idealism doesn't pay the bills.

These people from the third set don't want huge salaries - they just need a salary that helps them live a good life and be able to save some for the future. There definition of a good life isn't unreasonable.

What I find troublesome is that many of the donors that fund us aren't quite willing to fund overhead costs (which includes management salaries, office space, etc.) - which I guess is fair. BUT if you go into the donor's offices, you'll see that they're located in the most expensive of locations and the interiors of their offices are comparable to any corporate sector office. Maybe if they could just move to a less expensive part of town, the savings from that alone could pay the more reasonable annual salaries for a couple of very passionate (and very much needed) management at NGOs.

Being able to pay higher salaries and getting qualified and professional people definitely makes an impact on the quality of the programs a NGO runs. But I guess that's asking for too much.