ATLANTA (AP) Several employees are being laid off at the Arthritis Foundation's national headquarters in Atlanta.
This week, 26 administrative workers were laid off, which amounts to nearly 20 percent of the staff at the nonprofit's headquarters.
The foundation has struggled financially for years, but the foundation's federal tax returns show that CEO John Klippel got a $70,000 bonus in 2011 and has a salary and benefit package of more than $508,000, the television station reported.
The layoffs were in the best interest of donors to the foundation, which is trying to better focus on its mission and position itself for growth, Klippel said.
"At the top it looks comfortable, and then as you look deeper down the tree, we're in trouble," said Dorothy Glasser, who has served on the foundation's regional board for many years.
"We don't want to jeopardize our grant funding by this horrible, business operational blunder that has occurred," she added.
