Would you rather these massive multi-million dollar international organizations with thousands of employees around the globe be managed by some yahoo off the street at discount rates? If you want to hire a CEO, you have to offer a CEO salary.
What do you count as “charity causes?”
Few charities are in the business of just handing people goods and calling it a day. Much of the work that they do- training, medical services, education services, etc. is based on getting trained personnel to where they can help, and if you want to hire skilled people, you have to hire at market rates. The skilled managers, logisticians, trainers, and technical experts that charities employ have families to take of, student loans to pay off (many of these jobs call for advanced professional degrees), mortgages, a retirement to plan for and the same expenses that anyone else has. Pretty much all of their skills and qualifications are directly transferable to the private sector.
Organizationally, charities are not that different than any other business- you need an HR department, a communications department, a legal team, a whole boatload of MBAs, etc. And while they are not selling the end services and products for a profit, the actual workers are still going to need to be paid competitively. There is a slight added value to working for a good cause, but the warm fuzzies only get you so far in the labor market.
My friend is a Red Cross volunteer. She told me that when she went to help Katrina victims, she was given a per diem for food. My friend was living under the poverty line at the time, so she asked the organization if she could just eat the Ramen she brought with her and take the money home. She was told that they “strongly encourage” her to eat at local restaurants and grocery stores because part of the purpose of the per diem was to help the local economy.
Doing the right thing to assist people in a disaster can be counterintuitive. For example, donating food and blankets sounds right when people are hungry and cold. But buying food and blankets local to the disaster helps both the local economy and the people who are in direct need.
I remember one event at my college in particular that wanted to donate clothes to the homeless. The organizers soon discovered that “the homeless” turned down the warm winter coats because it was springtime. Turns out when you are homeless, you don’t have a closet to store the coats in for winter.