The Great Double Standard: What Counts as Program Expenses in Nonprofits

Fund the People: A Podcast with Rusty Stahl

This episode exposes the insane double standard between how staff costs are treated in private foundation budgets, and how staff costs are treated in nonprofit budgets and the grants that support them.

If you want to understand why private foundations are expected to pay great salaries and benefits, while public charities are expected to compensate with poverty wages, this episode succinctly explains the legal underpinnings of this difference.

The double standard must be at the center of our conversations about “full costs,” the “overhead” myth, and “direct” versus “indirect” costs.

To start that conversation, I offer a radical proposal for how to address the double standard! Take a listen and let me know what you think.

This episode is part of our Rusty's Rants and Reflections series. The series offers Rusty's provocative reflections and ideas about investing in the nonprofit workforce.

Go to our website for a transcript of this episode. You can find all the episodes of this podcast plus our blog, toolkit and other resources on our website, ⁠⁠fundthepeople.org⁠⁠. And we invite you to learn from all the amazing past guests of Fund the People - A Podcast with Rusty Stahl at ⁠fundthepeople.org/ftp_podcast⁠.