You’ll all probably know that an undercover sting operation by a newly-formed investigative group called Verbatim — which is backed by the US-linked climate journalism group Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) — targeted senior officials of the UK political party Reform UK.
When hearing about this, I began idly Googling US-based climate and environmental non-profit organisations. Within a couple of minutes, I came across a list of what appeared to be the highest-paid head honchos at environmental and nature protection non-profits.
Before you read any further, please make sure you are sitting down in a safe place with no risk of personal injury when you see what follows.
I won’t even comment, I’ll just list the salaries and total compensation packages of some of the leading environmental and nature protection organisations, many of which are so ‘important’ that (like me till five minutes before I wrote this) you’ve probably never even heard of them. Here are the Top 10:
1. Carter Roberts, President and CEO, World Wildlife Fund
Roberts, who has led the massive international conservation group since 2005, remains one of the environmental world’s top-paid leaders. His base pay in 2022 was $904,841, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s tax records. Roberts’s total reported compensation that year was $1,204,775.
2. Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund
EDF’s leader of nearly four decades took home base pay of $669,771 in 2021, the group’s records show. Krupp’s total compensation that year was $922,022.
3. Jennifer Morris, CEO, the Nature Conservancy
Morris, who started as the conservation group’s CEO in May 2020, earned $732,138 in base pay during her first full year on the job in 2021, the tax filing shows. Her total compensation that year was $758,013.
4. Elizabeth Gray, CEO, National Audubon Society
Gray was promoted in November 2021 to become the group’s permanent CEO. Her base pay that year was $462,069; her total compensation was $705,458. Her pay that year included a contractual retention and sign-on bonus, the tax filing says. She also received a discretionary bonus of $46,514 approved by the board of directors.
(Gray’s predecessor, David Yarnold, left in May 2021. His total compensation that year was $1,276,173, including severance and other benefits.)
5. Mitchell Bernard, Interim President, Natural Resources Defense Council
NRDC’s then-executive director Bernard stepped in to lead the group in early 2021 when Gina McCarthy left her post as president and CEO to join the Biden White House. Bernard held the role through August of that year and is now NRDC’s Chief Counsel. His base pay in 2021 was $479,498, the records show. His total compensation that year was $705,195
6. Janis Searles Jones, CEO, Ocean Conservancy
Jones has led the ocean conservation group since 2017. Her base compensation in 2022 was $440,860, the latest filing shows. Her total compensation that year was $692,836.
7. Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO, Defenders of Wildlife
Clark, who has led her conservation group since 2011, said she plans to step down this year. In 2022, Clark’s base pay was $531,907, according to the group’s most recent tax filing. Her total compensation was $616,137.
8. Andrew Sharpless, CEO, Oceana
Sharpless, who retired in 2024, received base pay in 2022 of $499,936; his total compensation that year was $546,078.
9. Adam Putnam, CEO, Ducks Unlimited
The former Florida Republican congressman has led the conservation group since 2019. His base pay was $339,805 in 2021, and his total compensation that year was $538,303.
10. Abbie Dillen, President, Earthjustice
Dillen took over as the green group’s leader in 2018. She earned base pay of $473,920 in 2021, and a total compensation package of $536,931.
The above salaries are from 2021 and 2022. Doubtless they’ve all increased substantially since then, as so often happens in organisations which seem to enjoy lavishly spending other people’s money on themselves.
I promised I wouldn’t comment. But I’ll briefly break my promise. I don’t want to insult people who like ducks and be reported to the police for ‘duckophobia’, but how on earth does someone in an organisation protecting ducks, Ducks Unlimited, get paid $538,303? And further down on the list, at number 15, how is someone leading Trout Unlimited pocketing $441,847?
You probably suspect that I think it’s April 1st and I’m pulling your leg. But I’m not. Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited really do exist. And, of course, if the top person is raking in hundreds of thousands a year, there are bound to be a whole slew of directors and senior managers also pocketing eye-watering amounts of donors’ cash.
The other issue I noticed from briefly glancing at the list was how similar many of these organisations seemed. Some are so similar as their names are nearly identical. For example, Oceana claims to be “the largest international advocacy organisation focused solely on ocean conservation”. Oceana’s mission is apparently to protect and restore our oceans. But we also have Ocean Conservancy, which tells us that it is a US-based organization that works globally to protect the ocean. Ocean Conservancy proudly proclaims: “Together, we are securing a healthy ocean and a thriving planet.”
When I wrote my 2015 book The Great Charity Scandal I worried about what I felt to be the rather generous six-figure salaries many of the larger UK-based charities paid their executives. But I had no idea of the hundreds of thousands being showered on the bosses of many US charities, which make UK charity bosses look like paupers in comparison.
Good grief. I clearly made the wrong career choices. I should have gone into an environment and nature protection non-profit – ideally in the USA. That seems to be the way to get really rich.
Anyway, if you want to be astonished and amazed, here’s a link to what seem to be the Top 30 most highly-paid executives in mainly US-based environment organisations. Enjoy!
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available (for now) as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.