HRC: Joe Solmonese Made How Much?

Outgoing HRC president Joe Solmonese had a mid-six figures salary. Was it worth it? What is? What are you willing to stand up and put money down for? And how much?

 

Outgoing HRC President Joe Solmonese, who announced he would leave the Human Rights Campaign at the end of his contract next March, will have made $318,475 for the fiscal year, which ends also on his last day.

Lisa Keen of Keen News Service, writes,

HRC spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz said Solmonese is earning $299,475 in salary and about $19,000 in benefits for the group’s current fiscal year. That’s a total package of $318,475 for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, when Solmonese’s contract is up.

That total is about $20,000—in benefits—from what it was in 2009 when theWashington Blade did its survey of LGBT leaders’ salaries. Solmonese had the highest salary but only the second largest salary-benefits package. (The largest package was Food & Friends Executive Director Craig Shniderman at $382,200.)

Cole-Schwartz noted that Solmonese took a voluntary 10 percent cut in salary—from $299,475 in 2009 to $269,528—for the fiscal years 2010 and 2011. That, said Cole-Schwartz was in response to “the difficult economy and the imperative that HRC cut back expenses.”

Fred Sainz, another HRC spokesman, noted that Solmonese will  receive “no departing package.”

Whatever your take on how much leaders of non-profits should make (as someone who has managed businesses up to $40 million dollars in another life, I’m all for paying well, as long as you get what you pay for,) it’s important to note that our collective resources as a community go to pay his salary.

Every person who donates to HRC owns stock in it — not really, but should, and at least should think like they do. Every dollar spent at HRC isn’t spent somewhere else. Every person who cares about LGBT rights, from you, who read this site (every day, we hope!) to the LGBT person who actively supports LGBT-friendly businesses, to the person who donates to LGBT charities and causes, or to HRC, is voting with their wallet, saying, “this is what I believe is important.”

What do you believe is important, what are you willing to pay for, and how much are you willing to invest in our shared equality? And, where should that money, that capital, that fuel, be going?