It Sure Pays to Work for a Charity - Hershey Trust Salaries Released

[JPZenger]

Working for a charity can be extremely profitable.

In the early 1900s, Milton Hershey donated almost his entire wealth to form the Hershey Trust to support the orphanage he founded. That orphanage has become the Milton Hershey School. The Trust still controls the main hotels in Hershey, the Hershey Company and Hersheypark.

The compensation paid to the top officials of this charity have been released for the 12 months from August 2009 to July 2009.

Former Top Staffer of the Hershey Trust Co. - Rob Vowler -- $2,283,084
Current Top Staffer of the Hershey Trust Co. - Vincent Rudisill -- $3,111,306

President (head of the School) John O'Brien -- $671,630
Vice-President of the School Pete Gurt -- $303,604

Legal Counsel for the Trust -Jim Sheehan -- $407,317
Chairman of the Board (a part-time job) LeRoy Zimmerman -- $499,996
Trust Boardmember (a part-time job) Bob Cavanaugh -- $300,000

Most of the other part-time boardmembers make $95,000 to $150,000 a year. Nice work if you can get it.

Meanwhile, the School is claiming poverty and cutting back many programs for students including some dental care, and eliminated all of the school's dairy cattle programs (which were a foundation of the school from the beginning).