Rapfogel's Salary
Recently, I wrote about the (legal and normal) process by which some politically connected nonprofits continue to get a good deal of money in City Council-distributed member items.
In the comments section on that post, a vigorous discussion ensued about the size of the salary earned by executive director William Rapfogel of the not-for-profit Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which got $500,000 in member items this year.
For the record: he makes a lot of money by non-profit-world standards, but not quite as much as some commenters guessed.
According to Rapfogel, who I talked to on the phone just now, his current salary is $379,000, which squares with the number in the group’s 2005-2006 tax filing, the most recent one available online.
This is the first batch of member items to go through a new, more rigorous vetting process.
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
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- Obama +4.4
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- Obama
- 56.4
- 35.2
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- McCain
- 54.4
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- +17.4
By non profit standards that salary is not a lot for a non profit with a budget of more than $100 million.
For Rapfogel's real estate skills - developing more than 1,000 units of affordable housing, he would get double his current salary or more in my business.
Met Council gives out more than $3 million in financial assistance, raised by Rapfogel, to poor and needy people in New York City in addition to all the food, housing and social services.
This is MY tax money going to pay for a BLOATED salary. The Governor of NY manages a $120 BILLION budget and gets paid $179,000. Why is Rapfogel paid $200,000 more than the Governor? If you want to make $ go into the private sector!
Slick Willy needs to spend more time helping people and less time blogging. This whole story was his plant to begin with because the big news is that he got hammered in the Council budget. His two dozen groups across the city got wiped out. His $500,000 grant he touts is down from $945,000 last year and over a dozen $200,000 grants to various groups (Brooklyn based JCRCs) got halved or almost zeroed out. Good try Slick Willy.
Azi,
The $379,000 is only salary. According to the filing you posted he receives another $44,117 in compensation benefits. That would bring his total to at least $423,117 (the filing is old, he probably gets more benefits now). As a matter of accounting you ADD the salary AND compensation benefits for a TOTAL compensation. $423,117 is alot of money for a non-profit to be paying anyone.
Slick Willy's group is not a $100 million dollar agency. Another bunch of phony baloney. Go to the State AG's website and you will see how big it is. And 90% of the money is just a pass through to other local Jewish agencies. But this is how he spends his day. Blogging. Slick Willy maybe controls $4,000,000 to $5,000,000 and he takes almost $400,000 off the top. Good job, Slick Willy.
Get a life.
MyTaxMoney! youve outed yourself by your rediculous governor comment we already heard from you before. Thanks for playing.
253 and 257 youre obviously the same person and you dont know your ass from your head so stop being a jealous wanna be and just get over yourself. people get paid more than you deal with it otherwise youll just be a bitter littla cry baby for the rest of your life.
Go play the megamillions todays jackpot is 43 million and if you win dont forget to donate to met council.
Oh and accountant or should i say fake trial lawyer your math is just not working out stick a cork in it youre smelling the place up.
Willy is the man keep up the good work we need you.
Forget Grasso, the Attorney General should investigate Rapfogel's pay. I did a quick search: the CEO of City Harvest, a comprable non-proft, gets paid $186,000 a year. This is really outrageous. Shame on Rapfogel for taking public money for his own good.
I am Met Council's Chief Financial OFficer. For the record, Mr. Rapfogel's salary is paid entirely by privately raised funds from the Board of Directors for that purpose. No government funds whatsoever pay for his compensation, which for an organization of our size and complexity is considered to be modest. Comparable size non-profits providing the wide range of services pay more.
Met Council's programs and fiscal operations are widely considered to be among the best in the nation. Witness that President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush have contributed to Met Council personally in each of the past 5 years - after extensive vetting of the organization. Furthermore, it should be noted that 98% of Met Council's government funds are won through competitive requests for proposals.
Thank you for your consideration.
Hey look its the same guy saying the same thing as before. You really need to get a new story this is rediculous already. Stop crying you turd.
Met Council's food pantry program serves as many people as any other one and it is only one of many huge and complex departments. If you combined 7 or 8 big non-profit organizations you would maybe get Met Council.
Hey Herb,
Just wondering, do those board members take a tax deduction on the contributions they make to pay for Mr. Rapfogel's excessive salary? If that's the case, then they are in-fact using the public good to benefit the incredibly high salary of Mr. Rapfogel.
Who pays for Herb Friedman's $200,000 plus salary? The argument that Friedman makes is silly. It's just taking money from one pocket and putting it in another pocket.
Rapfogel plays politics with other peoples money. He only helps ONE group in Williamsburg because they support his political candidates. The other group of tens of thousands of Jews receive no services from the council on "Jewish Poverty" because they're not as politically important.
Hey Just Wondering
It's interesting that you worry about the tax deduction as it applies to Met Council, Rapfogel and people who make extremely generous to donations to help the poor and needy with financial assistance throughout the year.
The fact that they are interested in having the most competent and effective person as Chief Executive and are willing to pay for it should be recognized for the public good it does.
What is your personal problem? Why are you spending all this time blogging under different names to maliciously attack the guy? Did he help you with your mental problems and give you crisis help and now you resent him? I guess it is true that no good deed goes unpunished.
Look at how Slick Willy flipped out when he was called out on the truth. Even Mrs. made an appearance at 3:11. The voice is so recognizable (I mean shrill.)Money, money, money !!! Thats all Mrs. likes to talk about.
1) You dont have a $100 million agency. You tell everyone that cause youre a silly little man. Youre group is a pass through of a couple of million dollars. Thats it. Youre not a big macha, just Slick Willy.
2) You lost all your money in this round of Council funding and you are putting out stories to show you still have "juice." Everyone knows that and its downhill from here. Getting called on that one really upset you, Slick Willy, I see.
3) I wonder if youre accountant tells the donors that their money goes to pay Slick Willys salary.
4) Hey, Slick Willy, do any of the executive directors of the groups that you fund (Brooklyn JCRCs) write large perosnal donations to MetCouncil, thereby getting tax deductions, and then MetCouncil gives those groups funding, and then the groups pay large salaries to the executive directors. Just checking, Slick Willy.
So sad that Willie has Herb come in to defend him. Where is Ilene ? Why isn't she posting here as well ?
Face it Will- you are a little baby. Stop spending your time commenting here and go out and earn your $400k+ salary.
Think Slick Willy taking $500,000 out of a $4,000,000 budget is "modest" ? Another million for the top three folks and wow, no wonder there is poverty in the Jewish community. Shameful, but G-D has a judgement day for all of us.
Working for another agency that was in the same building as Met Council, I had the privilege of getting to know Mr. Rapfogel and Mr. Friedman and the work of the Met Council staff. They may be well compensated, but the organization has done and continues to do a remarkable job, unlike many other non profits. I have referred people in need of assistance over the years to Met Council and received positive reports back. Willie and staff keep up the good work!
To the guy that keeps calling willy slick dont bring G-d into this. G-d will take plenty of time in dealing with you.
Why dont you tell us all who you are so we can see all the great things you do for the community.
Oh wait i forgot youre just some jealous nobody.
So, Slick Willy had the janitor (4:03)from his building post something supporting him. Slick Willy, or Mr. Accountant, answer the following:
1) Where exactly do you get the claim that you are a $100,000,000 agency. Where does that come from ?
2) After you deduct the pass through money you give to other agencies, how much specific program dollars (not real estate value, not some other number) do you manage ?
3) Have you ever had an "understanding" that executive directors of agencies you fund would make a donation to MetCouncil (thereby getting a personal tax break) and that that would be matched in the money they get back from MetCouncil minus 10%. Just answer this question please.
I have had the pleasure of observing Willy Rapfogel grow Met Council into a multi faceted mega organization that should be admired. He could easily get this salary or above it in the not for profit world. If you have a problem with his salary take it up with the board. They are big business leaders who have the brains to understand what a great man they have and want to keep. Willy keep up the great work and ignore these morons here!
This 'Rap'fogel' was placed in Met Council with Intention, they gave the old CEO a big chunk of dollars he should stay out of met council (he was too sincere).
"Met Council" is doing a fine job with the few social service under there auspices, but on the other hand the millions of dollars they distribute is maneuvered and micro-managed by "politics", and for no other reason.
With the hundreds of housing units they manage its a different story, but the social help part, is under UJA Federation.
He personal likes to be 'King', he want to be the emperor and hungry for power, his wife is Judy and they try to be "power players", but to many people scrutinized trow their hunger for power.
I figured it out.
The Slick Willy poster wants to be Willy Rapfogel.
He is infatuated with him.
While he sits around all day and does nothing the Slick Willy poster fantasizes about being Willy Rapfogel and you know what I wouldn't be surprised if the Slick Willy poster is in love with Willy Rapfogel and wants to have his babies.
Slick Willy poster I hate to tell you this but Willy Rapfogel isn't gay. Sorry
To 4:33 what the hell are you saying. This is america please speak english. Dope
My last comment was to the first 4:33 post
as usal this is a smear capaing buy glanz & co .the moto buy them goes like this "if u work only with me good if not i'll try to put you down" but b'h they are getting nowhare.
evryday they come up with new names c.j.c or u,j.c.
when will they realize they are fighting with hashem.
anyway if willy would work for any real estate co in the private sector wich is involved in so many housing units what do u think how much would tht person be paid .
plus all the other departments wich he is involved in like food pantry / home care /job training plus a bunch of other socail services .
anyway wiily keep up the good work .
v'hoyu k'etz shu'cil al pal'gai mo'yim asher pir'yo yiten b'itoy v'ole'hy loy yibol .
As far the record show "Met Council" is getting $760,000 Member Items from the NYS Legislator in 08-09 budget,+ above $500,000 from NYC Council.
The RFP's is another source of funds, last year from NYS about $1000,000,00 and from NYC another $2,000,000,00.
It's kinda funny how easy it is to spot certain people. If you ask the vast majority of people who are involved in the not-for-profit world in this city what they think of Met Council, the answer will always be positive.
So why all the negativity? Well... if you read carefully you'll notice that a good portion of the negative comments are written by the same people. Some of it is actually quite amusing.
For example, I'm still trying to understand why one portion of the Satmar community in Williamsburg which has used money from Met Council for years has decided to turn against them with such anger and hatred while their own constituents still receive benefits from Met Council. Aren't you folks supposed to be busy punching each other out and figuring out which corrupt son of the Rabbi OBM is the rightful heir to the $200 million dollars of taxpayer subsidised real estate you've pilfered over the years? I'm shocked you all have time to post on here.
Who else? How about a former employee of Met Council who despises Rapfogel because he wanted the position? Should I type your name or will you grow a pair and say it yourself?
Some of the comments are completely laughable though, especially the one who compares the governor's salary... did you forget that the gov has over 100,000 employees who take care of these things for him whereas Mr. Rapfogel shoulders the responsibility of fundraising for his organization on his own?
Who else? How about the boy who thinks he's going to make it big with Bloomy and figures that ragging on Met Council is a good way to do it? It's no secret that Bloomy hates Sheldon Silver with a passion because he did not bow to the Billionaire baby's wishes, particularly congestion pricing and the West Side stadium (which don't exactly go hand in hand) and it's not secret that Bloomy will go to great lengths to take revenge on those who "thwart" him. Knocking around the organization that Shelly's chief of staff's wife works for is a great way to score brownie points with the boss. Hey pal, maybe you'll get a job when he leaves city hall and returns to the private sector. Maybe if you're still useful, but I doubt it.
It's really funny that in a time where we have so much garbage to deal with in this city such as gas prices, a complete failure to redevelop the WTC, cranes falling out of the sky, and a financial uncertainty that people will waste time doing everything they can to slap around a group that does so much good.
Those are you talking about numbers should actually attempt to read the real numbers such as the amount of people this group helps, the amount that Mr. Rapfogel raises and the fact that Met Council received government money LONG before Rapfogel even worked there. Oh... that's not sensationalist enough is it... they got money before to? Aw... Back to the drawing board I guess.
I'm sure there will be more posts with more venom to come, but quite honestly, I'll sit at home knowing that regardless of what a group of disgruntled people say Met Council will be around for a long time to come and Mr. Rapfogel will continue his leadership in bringing it to new heights. Everything else is just chatter.