The Bono Effect: What’s the Reality of Non-Profit Spending in a Consumer World?

If you were paying attention to the news recently, you certainly saw the scandal regarding super star and world activist Bono’s African charity (ONE) and the discrepancy between the money that was spent paying executive salaries and the money that was actually sent to help developing nations in Africa. To many, this news was shocking. However, the reality is that this is common in many non-profits. The bulk of the money from donations is spent on “administrative” costs, and a relatively low amount goes to the actual charitable cause.

In the U.S., this has been less prevalent since some large exposures in the late eighties and throughout the nineties regarding nonprofit budgets and how they were used. Since then, many nonprofits will reveal the percentage of your donation that goes directly to the charitable cause so that you know immediately. After all, it’s easy to find that information out on the internet, and it’s better to just be upfront about it than to get the bad PR later associated. In fact, there’s an entire website that tracks how much a charity gives to actual charity.

But what does this have to do with being a postconsumer? What really struck us when reading about the Bono situation was their need to pay nonprofit workers such extreme salaries. Now, it’s not that we don’t think that those who work for a cause deserve a competitive compensation, after all, we all need to eat and live comfortably. It’s also not that we think that nonprofits shouldn’t spend some of their budget on salaries. Again, after all, operations have to happen somehow. However, the salaries that were being paid were enormous! There is a presupposing that if a person goes into a non-profit job, they will then be paid a slightly lower wage because the non-profit requires that the bulk of its finances go to its cause. Do you think this is fair?

Is this scandal indicative of a shift in the American mindset where even those who go to work to promote a cause and a belief still need to make enough money to become addicted to overconsumption? Do we need to start having conversations about postconsumerism with non-profit workers, too? Oh my! What do you think? Friend us on Facebook and tell us!