How much do they make? A look at the compensation paid to leaders of the LGBT rights movement

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Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends, which provides meals and nutritional services for homebound people with HIV/AIDS in the Washington, D.C. area, had the highest salary among the heads of the nation’s most prominent LGBT advocacy groups and groups that provide AIDS-related services in Los Angeles, New York and D.C.

A survey of the compensation paid to heads of 30 LGBT and AIDS organizations, conducted by the Washington Blade, shows that Shniderman had a total salary and benefits package of $382,200 in 2008, the latest period for which the organizations’ salary and annual revenue data could be obtained for a completed fiscal year.

Shniderman’s earnings placed him ahead of Joe Solmonese, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT political advocacy group. Solmonese, who ranked second in the salary survey, received a total compensation package of $338,400 in 2008.

Shniderman’s salary also topped that of Lorri Jean, executive director of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, which had revenue of $48.5 million in 2008 and had nearly 300 employees compared to Food & Friends’ annual revenue of $7.9 million and 50 employees. The L.A. Center provides HIV/AIDS-related services as well as a host of social and recreational services for the LGBT community.

The L.A. Center’s $48.5 million was the highest among all the LGBT and AIDS groups in the survey. HRC had the second highest annual revenue among the 30 groups: $41.4 million. Equality California, the statewide group that coordinated the unsuccessful effort to oppose an anti-gay marriage amendment, came in third, with a 2008 figure of $24.5 million.

Geoff Kors, Equality California’s executive director, had a 2008 compensation of $171,000.

D.C.’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, the city’s largest AIDS service provider for the LGBT community and other city residents in the Washington area, had 2008 revenue of $21.5 million. Its executive director, Donald Blanchon, had a 2008 salary of $170,000.

The 30 national LGBT and AIDS groups are among the thousands of nonprofit organizations in the United States that must file annual reports with the IRS disclosing financial information, including the salaries of their chief operating officers.

In conducting the survey, the Blade asked the 30 organizations to disclose the salaries for their CEOs or executive directors for 2008 — the most recently completed fiscal year — as well as for the current fiscal year of 2009. The IRS 990 financial disclosure forms for nonprofit organizations do not become publicly available for two years, with the 2007 IRS forms being the latest year that the disclosure forms can be obtained by the press or public.

Twenty-six groups in the survey agreed to provide the salary and revenue figures for 2008 and 2009, even though they are not required by law to do so for one and two years successively. Four of the groups in the survey declined to provide the salary and revenue information for the most recent two years.

The groups declining to provide the information include Gay Men’s Health Crisis of New York City, one of the nation’s first and most prominent AIDS groups providing services to the LGBT community; the LGBT Community Center of New York City; Empire State Pride Agenda, a statewide LGBT political advocacy group in New York; and Log Cabin Republicans, a national LGBT political group based in Washington, D.C.

According to information compiled by two watchdog organizations that monitor salaries and other finance-related data of nonprofit organizations — Guidestar and Charity Navigator — some of the salaries of the leaders of the 30 LGBT and AIDS groups surveyed by the Blade, on average, were comparable to salaries of non-LGBT civil rights and “social action” groups with a similar revenue figure.

However, a number of the groups surveyed by the Blade offered higher salaries for their CEO or executive director than similar non-LGBT groups tracked by Guidestar and Charity Navigator.

The most recent Guidestar Compensation Report — for 2006 — offers a breakdown of average CEO/executive director salaries for a category of organizations labeled “civil rights, social action, advocacy,” which includes the LGBT rights groups.

In the report, organizations with an annual budget greater than $5 million pay CEOs on average $196,531, with CEOs who make $320,212 landing near the top in the 90th percentile for compensation.

GLAAD’s Neil Giuliano earned slightly more than $270,000 in 2008, putting his compensation near the average for a group with a $7 million budget. The Victory Fund’s Chuck Wolfe also falls into the average range, with annual compensation last year at $220,000; the group’s 2008 budget was $5.2 million.

The compensation for Food & Friends’ Shniderman puts him above the 90th percentile and at the top of the survey. Similarly, the Guidestar report places Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality above the 90th percentile for compensation. According to the report, the average executive director salary for an organization with less than a $500,000 annual budget — NCTE’s is $454,770 — is $54,521. Keisling earned a total of $82,321 last year.

But some gay rights leaders are paid less than the average salary for similar nonprofits, according to Guidestar. The National Stonewall Democrats’ Jon Hoadley, for example, earned $59,500 in 2008 on annual revenue of $650,000. The average salary for an executive director of a group that size is $83,042. Similarly, Dyana Mason of Equality Virginia was paid $59,000 from revenues of $700,000. Her replacement as director of the statewide activist group will be paid $79,000, bringing the salary in line with the average.
Neil Giuliano

GLAAD

$271,034

Charity Navigator recently released 2008 salary data for nonprofit organizations in a category it describes as “public benefit” groups, which includes civil rights and “advocacy” organizations. The Charity Navigator findings show that the average 2008 salary for CEOs and executive directors for groups within that category was just over $150,000. But the findings weren’t broken down into subcategories based on the annual revenue and overall size of the groups.

In submitting their information for the Blade’s survey, at least seven of the 30 organizations indicated that their executive directors had or would soon take a reduction in salary in 2009 due to problems associated with the nation’s economic downturn.

HRC’s Solmonese took a voluntary pay cut of 10 percent, lowering his total compensation from $338,400 to $302,200, according to HRC.

Neil Giuliano, executive director of GLAAD, agreed to a $20,000 salary cut in 2009, from $271,034 in 2008 to $251,034, Giuliano told the Blade. He also declined health insurance benefits from the organization.

Other groups disclosing 2009 salary reductions for their CEO or executive director included Lambda Legal; Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays; Family Equality Council; and National Stonewall Democrats.

National Youth Advocacy Coalition disclosed in its survey response that the current 2009 salary of its executive director, Greg Varnum, was $62,000, a reduction from the 2007 salary of his predecessor, which was $92,240. The group did not disclose the salary of its executive director for 2008, saying the group’s leadership post was in transition.