What does the Executive Director of the American Cancer Society make anually?

Question

I would like an idea of all the top executives salaries in the American Cancer Society. I have been volunteering for years and now that IO need help, I get NUTHIN!!

Answer 1

Boy is this a good question.  I'd like to know the answer also.

When I was working very long hours as a cancer doctor, I also did some volunteer work for the American Cancer Society.  I was surprised to see that the local officers were paid employees.  In my years as a medical oncologist, I was not able to get financial help for individual patients who were in great need of help.  I could and often did treat them for free at my own expense, but they also had many other expenses.

Perhaps the ACS is not designed to help individuals - or perhaps my office staff and I just didn't know how to apply for monetary patient assistance that may have been available.  The word I heard was that the vast amount of money donated goes primarily for research, but I don't have specific information as to where the money really goes - or how much is spent on the executives' salaries.



I sure hope they don't make the outlandish salaries that many CEO's of large companies make.  As a cancer specialist doctor, I made over $100,000 only 3 years of my 20 years in practice - working 80 plus hours per week.  I was the guy doing the direct care for many good people with these bad diseases (though in truth my nurses did much more hands on care than I did and were paid much less).

If these executives make more than $100,000 per year, I will be a bit upset - - but not surprised.  If they do make over $100,000, maybe they donate a large part of their salaries back to the ACS?  I'd like to think they do.  This is supposed to be - or should be - a compassionate organization.  The volunteers I have known who work for no pay are very compassionate caring people.

Hope you get a definitive answer on this excellent question.

Maybe someone can find this info online.

Answer 2

The American Cancer Society provides IRS Form 990 with a breakdown of all financial information from 2007:

ACS: Financial Information

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/AA/content...

About the American Cancer Society

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/AA/AA_0.as...

John R. Seffrin, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/AA/content...

ACS: Tax Status

http://charityreports.bbb.org/Public/Rep...

From what I know about the ACS they do not offer individual funding for cancer patients, but will provide services (ie transportation or lodging).

They do offer resources so that you can locate financial or insurance help, but they don't provide it directly:

ACS:  Health Insurance and Financial Assistance for the Cancer Patient

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MLT/conten...

Answer 3

According to the BBB report in 2006, their Chief Executive Officer, John R. Seffrin, gets $1,101,119 a year in compensation (which is not all necessarily part of his paid salary as this figure includes benefits).  

Being tax exempt, they have to submit two 990 forms to the IRS per year, one being the National Home Office form and the other the Consolidated Division form.  I am no tax expert, so I am separately listing the information from each of the two forms:

According to their 2006 National Home Office form 990, they have about 700 employees who make over $50,000 a year.  

Also according to that same tax report, they paid $2,178,162 to their current officers, directors, or key employees--which includes the million John R. Seffrin gets, and the rest being what their Chief Medical Officer Otis Webb Brawley, MD makes.

However, other managers and administrative positions such are not included in this figure.  Their 2006 salaries added up to $19,483,164 plus another $3,904,516 in additional benefits and pension plans.  Their total that year for all employees was $82,809,643 in paid salaries plus $15,538,330 in additional benefits and pension plans.  That makes it a total of $100,526,135 paid to employees that year.  Add that to what they pay in lawyer fees, accountant fees, toward fundraisers, travel expenses, living expenses, etc. and you get quite a hefty sum.  Those numbers are provided on the tax form found on their website, as well.

In their Consolidated Division 990 form, managerial and administrative positions earned $18,811,551 in salaries, benefits, and pension plans.  Their total for all employees was  $345,117,127 in combined salaries, wages, benefits, and pension plans.  These figures do not include current directors, officers, or key employees but their salaries and benefits are not listed on this form.  

This form also includes information on their top five highest paid employees (other than officers, directors, and trustees), whose salaries and benefits each range from $480,754 for the lowest to over $580,000 for the two highest paid.  The form also lists what they pay their top five independent contractors for professional services, each making over a hundred grand a year, and their top five independent contractors for other services who make between 2.2 million and 6.7 million apiece.

Answer 4

Whatever they make is too much. I've contacted them several times and never get a straight answer. They always say get a second opinion. With progressive prostate cancer a second opinion doesn't mean much. They're more interested in donations.