By: Tom Buchanan

The nonprofit that runs the National September 11 Memorial & Museum is being blasted for showering its executives with huge paychecks while the institution itself hemorrhages money, the New York Post first reported. Families of victims say it is an insult to their loved ones and proof that the foundation has lost its way.

According to the New York Post, the memorial and museum took in $93 million in revenue last year, including $4.5 million in government money, but still managed to lose nearly $19 million. That deficit comes despite charging $36 for adult admission and as much as $85 for combined tours, making it one of the most expensive museums in New York City. The New York Post first reported that since 2015 ticket prices have soared from $24 to $36, yet donations have lagged, and critics say the nonprofit has turned into a cash machine for insiders rather than a sacred site of remembrance.

IRS filings reviewed by the Post show that President and CEO Elizabeth Hillman pulled in $856,216 in total compensation in 2024, a staggering 63 percent increase from the $503,000 her predecessor Alice Greenwald made just two years earlier. Executive vice president Joshua Cherwin, who serves as chief advancement officer, collected $486,298 in 2024, up 78 percent since 2020, the New York Post reported. Other senior executives also cashed in, with chief strategy and operations officer Allison Blais earning $458,652, director Clifford Chanin taking home $444,999 after a 66 percent raise, and chief financial officer David Shehaan’s salary exploding by nearly 300 percent since 2019 to reach $432,958. In total, payroll ballooned to $34 million in 2024, compared with $22 million just four years ago, the New York Post first reported.

For families who lost loved ones on 9/11, the numbers are appalling. Retired FDNY firefighter Jim Mc Caffrey, whose brother-in-law Orio Palmer was killed in the towers, told the Post, “How can you justify these salaries? It’s just another slap in the face of the families.” Another outspoken advocate, Sally Regenhard, whose son Christian, also a firefighter, was killed on 9/11, said to the New York Post that it is outrageous that museum officials are paying themselves “bloated salaries while asking Congress for handouts.” She blasted leaders of the nonprofit as people profiting off tragedy while ignoring the families’ demands to remove the remains of 1,100 unidentified victims from the museum basement. “That is unpatriotic and un-American,” she said.

The New York Post reported that only $10.3 million of the nonprofit’s $93 million revenue came from private donations last year, while $69 million came directly from tickets and merchandise sales. Despite charging tourists premium prices, the foundation continues to lean on taxpayer subsidies, including $3.5 million from the National Park Service, $500,000 from New York State, and $350,000 from the City of New York. The reliance on admission fees, rather than charitable giving, has long alarmed families who say the memorial should not feel like a tourist trap.

When confronted, museum officials insisted the $19 million loss was misleading and blamed depreciation, telling the Post that without the accounting write-off, the institution would have shown a surplus. Critics weren’t buying it. Glenn Corbett, a fire science professor at John Jay College and longtime advisor to 9/11 families, told the New York Post that from the start “it was clear this would be the most expensive memorial museum in the world to build and to operate.”