People often tell me that those who work for nonprofits should work for less because of the psychic benefits of being able to make a difference. The notion is a red herring. And that’s putting it kindly.

Do these people really believe that no one makes a difference in the for-profit sector? What about the people at drug companies working on cures for diseases or the people distributing the cell phones that are revolutionizing Africa? Not to mention the less sexy industries that make it possible for us to heat our homes and power our lives.

Many people in the nonprofit sector work behind the scenes in cubicles, they sit in interminable departmental meetings—just like employees everywhere. They’re far removed from the psychic benefits that are supposed to substitute for half of their paycheck.

In 2003, BusinessWeek surveyed the compensation packages of MBAs 10 years out of business school. The median compensation package with bonus was $400,000. By contrast, the average 2004 salary of the chief executive of a hunger charity was $84,000. There’s no way you’re going to get people with a $400,000 salary to take a $316,000 pay cut on the basis of the psychic benefits that await them.

Consider the enormous psychic benefits that people in the for-profit world enjoy as philanthropists. It’s cheaper for an MBA to donate $100,000 a year to the hunger charity than to go work for it. She gets $50,000 in federal and state tax savings, which leaves her $266,000 ahead of the game. On top of that, she gets a seat on the board; indeed, probably chairs the board. She also gets to supervise the person who’s running the hunger charity. She gets to dictate his strategy and how he executes it. And, with a $100,000 annual contribution to the charity, the “philanthropist” gets her name on the top of the charity’s headquarters. Sounds like an awful lot of psychic benefit to me.

Don’t fall for this puritan self-sacrificial psychobabble. It’s not the poor who are asking you to work for less. It’s the donating public, including many a wealthy donor. If you do the math and the psychic benefits come up lacking, then ask the people who want you to make the world a better place for another kind of benefit that begins with a “p.” Pay.

Dan Pollota is the founder of Pallotta TeamWorks, and the author of Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential.