Kids Company directed a greater proportion of its income towards paying its chief executive than Britain's biggest charities, arguably undermining claims it provided "exceptional" value.
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the colourful, self-styled champion of young Londoners, is said to have lobbied David Cameron personally to ensure her charity received vital cash injections, despite concerns over its financial mismanagement.
Many were left aggrieved at Batmanghelidjh's reported £90,000 salary as details of the charity's profligate spending emerged after its closure this summer.
Allegations that young clients were handed bundles of cash to pay off drug peddlers and that a chauffeur had his daughter's private school fees paid for by the charity have been levelled against the group's founder.
Batmanghelidjh claimed today that Kids Company provided "exceptional clinical and financial value as well as its rigorous accountability".
But an analysis of Britain's biggest charities by income show Kids Company appears to have been paying its top earner more, in proportion to the money it raised.
Kids Company awarded its top-paid staff member, believed to be Batmanghelidjh, a £90,000 salary - or a 0.389% of its £23,104,012 income.
This compares to 0.110% of income spent on the salary of Britain's highest paid charity boss at healthcare provider Nuffield Health. Cancer Research UK awards 0.036%, Oxfam 0.0326%, and The National Trust 0.0367% of income towards their highest-paid employee.
Some 36,000 young people were left without support after Kids Company's closure, with Batmanghelidjh later telling Parliament that just 1,036 clients had since been referred on to other providers.
The charity was a favourite of government ministers during previous Labour administrations and under the Coalition. It received millions in ad-hoc emergency payments, and a report from the National Audit Office found "a consistent pattern of behaviour each time Kids Company approached the end of a grant term".
The most recent emergency payments, totaling £7.3m, were made in March and June of this year.
This is the proportion of top executives' pay at Britain's biggest charities
