(The Center Square)—Despite posting multi-million-dollar losses in several recent years, a federally funded nonprofit that develops vaccines against deadly viruses overseas has continued to raise its executives' pay. That includes two whose compensation exceeded the $400,000 annual salary of the president of the United States, an investigation by The Center Square found.
Its revenue dropped 10.5% to $35.9 million from $40.1 million in 2023, while its federal grants and contractsfrom the Department of Health and Human Servicesdeclined to$30.6 million from$31.3 million over the sameperiod.
Despite the decreases,Sabin increased its spending onexecutivecompensationand othersalariesand wages by $800,000, to $9million,in 2024.
Topping the list was CEO Amy Finan, who saw her compensation fromthe nonprofit rise to $517,124from $503,726 in 2023.Then-President Anuradha Gupta received the biggest raise. Hercompensationsoared to$418,131in 2024from $237,447the previous year.
Finan andGuptawereamong sixexecutives who received more than $300,000 in compensation from the nonprofit in 2024. Aseventh,DeniseGarrett, a vice president,received $298,500.
Ross Marchand, executivedirectorof the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, saidanauditcoulddeterminewhether private sources could subsidize the nonprofit rather than government grants.
“The Institute does really important work,” Marchand told The Center Square, “butit’shard to say if taxpayers should be footing the bill for executives’compensation. A good audit would show if private sources rather than government grantscould subsidize the Institute.”
Spokespersons for Sabin did not return two emails and voicemails from The Center Square seeking comment.
Founded in 1993, the nonprofit develops and tests vaccines against the Marburg virus and Sudan Ebola viruswith both government and private funding.Both diseases are highly lethal and have caused outbreaks in East and Central Africa.Its founder was a twentieth-century Polish American medical researcher who developed the oral vaccine against polio.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that health workers in the Congo have gone unpaid and are so upset that they have "violated basic Ebola control protocols and allowed grieving families to touch the bodies of relatives killed by the virus—an act almost certain to spread the disease, not stem it." The outbreak has killed about 3,200 people there and is likely to exceed prior Ebola epidemics in Africa, the story reported.
Some Sabin executives have seen theircompensationstayroughly thesame or evendecline. Former CEO Michael Marine received $284,539 in 2015,roughly $1,000less than he made the year before. Current CEO Finan’scompensation remained essentially flatfrom 2020 to 2021 when she made $410,000each yearand fell $15,000 a year from 2017 to 2018.
In most years, Sabin’s executives have received pay boosts regardless of the nonprofit’s finances.
Finan became CEO in 2016, when her compensation was $230,556and Sabin reported $14.8 million in revenue. In 2017, her compensation rose to $377,725 even as thenonprofit'srevenue fell to $8.1 million.
Meanwhile, Sabin's spendingon executive compensation and other salaries and wageshas nearly tripled since 2018, rising from $3.3 million to $9 million in 2024.
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