CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Six years ago, Franklin Graham decided to give up his pay as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“I feel that God has called me to this ministry and that calling was never based on compensation,” he wrote then in a memo to the BGEA staff.

But since 2011, at the urging of the Charlotte-based ministry’s board of directors, Graham has been receiving a salary again.

That’s in addition to the more than $620,000 he receives for his other full-time job, leading Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief agency based in Boone. His 2013 compensation from Samaritan’s Purse alone made him the highest-paid CEO of any international relief agency based in the U.S., according to data provided by GuideStar, the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations.

Graham’s total compensation last year from the two charities was more than $880,000, including $258,667 from BGEA.

More: CHARLOTTE, N.C.: Billy Graham’s Son Is Taking Ministry Pay He Once Gave Up