The Wall Street Journal recently reported that some nonprofit organizations are expecting a closer examination of executive pay. Although senior employees of nonprofits don't receive the enormous bonuses that Wall Streeters do, executive compensation has become a topic of national interest. Charities, including schools, may soon find that closer attention is being paid to the nonprofit sector.

"The train of greater focus on nonprofit executive compensation has left the station, and charity boards better get on, or they're going to suffer greatly for noncompliance," says Michael Peregrine, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP, who advises nonprofits. Nonprofits should start reviewing their pay policies in light of the current political environment, he says. "It just cannot be business as usual."

Theological schools don't have the funds to pay the really big salaries earned even by some nonprofit administrators, like the $1.2 million package paid to the chief executive of the United Way of Central Carolina. (When controversy erupted last fall, board members resigned and she was dismissed.) But theological schools are ultimately accountable to people in pews, many of whom give sacrificially and expect others to do so too. 

Read the Wall Street Journal article here.