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From the issue dated February 3, 2005
Median Pay for Foundation Chiefs Was $110,000 Last Year, Study Finds
By Debra E. BlumEmployees of the nation's foundations last year received a median pay raise of 4 percent, according to a new report
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ALSO SEE: Salaries and Benefits at Foundations |
Chief executive officers at all types of foundations -- community, corporate, and private -- received a median salary of $110,000 in 2004, meaning half made more and half made less. That was an increase from the median pay of $104,000 in 2003. Salaries of program officers, which stayed flat from 2002 to 2003, grew by roughly 3 percent last year, to a median of $67,057.
The council's report, published annually, may garner more attention this year because of the increased federal scrutiny of charity pay. Congress has been examining compensation practices at nonprofit groups, and the Internal Revenue Service announced last summer that it would more aggressively and systematically investigate whether some charities are awarding their leaders too much in salary and other forms of compensation, including loans and deferred pay.
According to the council's report, salaries varied greatly by foundation size and type. At the biggest private foundations, the highest amount paid to chief executives was $650,000.
Community foundations paid their chiefs as much as $530,000, while the highest salary was $214,000 for chief officers at corporate foundations or giving programs.
For the first time, the council included questions on the 2004 survey about conflict-of-interest policies. About 65 percent of the foundations reported they had such a written policy for staff members. Private foundations were less likely than community foundations to have a policy.
Among the foundations that have a written policy, nearly 70 percent either prohibit gifts, payments, or services from grantees or applicants, or require disclosure of them. More than 85 percent prohibit or require disclosure of the presence of grantees or applicants on the foundation's board. And about 80 percent prohibit staff members or their families from being affiliated with grantees, applicants, or companies that provide goods or services to the foundation -- or require the disclosure of such relationships.
Comprehensive Look
The report is based on data covering 6,480 full-time employees at 808 foundations and giving programs. Together the funds in the most recent survey held about 45 percent of all foundation assets in 2002, and were responsible for roughly one-third of all grants made that year. The salary gains in the report reflect increases that had been made or were planned for last year.
Costs of living in different parts of the country appeared to have a big influence on compensation. Median salaries last year in the Midwest, for example, were 8.4 percent lower, on average, than the national median for the same positions. Median salaries in the Northeast were, on average, 8.9 percent higher than the national figures.
Among the survey's other highlights:
Chief executives. The median salary for chief executives at private foundations last year was $141,675. At the largest private foundations, those with assets of at least $1-billion, the median salary was $410,000.
At community foundations, the median salary for chief executives was $82,400, with the median rising to $218,500 at such grant makers with at least $250-million in assets.
Chief executives are remaining in their jobs a little longer, the survey found, with an average tenure of 7.7 years in 2004, up from 7.2 years in 2000. And nearly 30 percent of last year's top executives had been in the job for 10 years or more.
Chief financial officers. The median salary for all treasurers or chief financial officers was $93,660. At community foundations, chief financial officers earned a median of $72,500, about half of the median salary at private foundations: $146,000.
Program officers. Program officers at private foundations also earned substantially more than those at community grant makers -- a median of $81,000, compared with $49,398.
But the survey found that program-officer salaries at community foundations are rising faster than those at private foundations, a turnaround from a trend identified by previous surveys. From 2000 through 2004, private-foundation salaries grew by 3.3 percent, adjusted for inflation. Taking inflation into account, pay for program officers at community foundations rose by 6.4 percent.
Benefits. More than 9 out of 10 grant makers provided health or retirement benefits, above those required by federal law, to full-time employees. Of those, nearly three-quarters covered the entire cost of such benefits, meaning employees were not required to pay any money for health-care premiums or other such costs.
Fewer than 20 percent of grant makers (115 out of 650) said they extended benefits to the unmarried domestic partners of employees. Thirty-one grant makers that do not currently offer domestic-partner benefits said their organization was considering adopting such a policy.
The median cost of total employee benefits for all grant makers was 26 percent of payroll last year, up slightly from the previous year.
Women Still Majority
Besides compensation data, the survey included gender and other demographic information about foundation employees.
Women continue to make up the majority (75.2 percent) of all full-time paid staff members, as well as a majority (53 percent) of chief executive officers. Women are best represented at corporate foundations, accounting for 78.2 percent of top executives and 84.2 percent of program officers.
Women are more likely to head smaller foundations than larger ones. Almost two-thirds of the grant makers with assets of less than $50-million are headed by women, while women lead less than 40 percent of foundations with assets of $100-million or more. Women are also still in the minority among the top ranks of family and independent foundations, where they account for 49 percent and 43.2 percent of chief executives, respectively.
Members of racial and ethnic minorities make up about one-fifth of all full-time foundation employees.
Only 5 percent of foundation chief executives are members of minority groups, down slightly from 2003 when minorities held 5.8 percent of the top jobs.
Copies of the report, "2004 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report," may be obtained by contacting the Council on Foundations' Publications Department at (888) 239-5221, or through the council's Web site at http://www.cof.org. The price of the print version is $80 for council members and $150 for nonmembers. A CD-ROM version is available at $40 for members and $80 for nonmembers.
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