As Americans get increasingly fed up with news about Wall Street bonuses and perks, and botched political appointments like that of the Washington insider Tom Daschle, nonprofit leaders should be wary of appearing greedy, writes Robert Egger in his blog One Voice for Change.

“The party is over,” he writes. “Regular folks have been getting hosed down like cows in the paddock and they are righteously yanked.”

Mr. Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen, says he disagreed when one of his colleagues recently proposed trying to get money from the economic-stimulus bill.

“Folks—this kind of thing, which is the D.C. game in spades, will kill us,” he writes. “All over this town, nonprofits are lining up, trying to bum rush the White House or the Hill to get their cause, committee, or chair to the front of the line.”

With public trust in nonprofit groups declining, pundits and politicians could find them easy targets as they look to cater to the current public mood, he says.

Mr. Egger also warns that Americans do not look kindly on high nonprofit executive compensation. “Most Americans will never, ever see 100K, let alone 250K or higher,” he says. “They are just not interested in subsidizing any salary at that level, unless you can totally prove you are curing cancer or something of a similar caliber.”

(See a previous Give and Take post on a proposal to cap nonprofit salaries.)

What do you think? Should nonprofit groups refrain from asking for government help? Should they limit executive compensation? Share your thought by clicking on the comment link below.