Second Tree is a grassroots humanitarian organisation, as well as a community of people that care for each other and have a commitment to each other. What holds us together is the motivation for the work we do, and doing it in a way we find ethically right.

Our compensation policy applies to all team members, and it’s the same for everyone. We deliberately keep it modest, because we want more resources to reach the people we work with. The founders of Second Tree left much better-paid jobs to be here, and most of the people who followed did the same. This is not because we are virtuous; it is just a pragmatic recognition that this way we can have a bigger impact.

We do believe that the work that each one of us does every day is very valuable. That value is not defined by the compensation we give ourselves. Even if we had all the money in the world, we would still not try to quantify the relative financial worth of each other’s position in the organisation, and pay different salaries accordingly.

The idea behind our compensation policy is simple: we are not rewarding a job description, we are allowing team members to live a decent life while doing meaningful work, and to stay for as long as they want. The compensation increases over time at Second Tree, so that a longer commitment comes with more comfort and stability. People who join Second Tree normally stay for a very long time. More than half of the team has been here for at least three years.

We see the transparency of our compensation, and the shared way in which we make these decisions, as a duty to each other. Over the years, we’ve seen conflicts around money destroy many organisations: who has a salary and who is a volunteer? Who decides who gets paid? And how much more is a manager paid? At Second Tree, these questions have a simple answer.

The same policy applies to everyone, regardless of position, including directors and people with many years of experience. There are no negotiations behind closed doors: everyone is part of the same policy, and everyone knows how much everyone else is compensated.