Foundation Trustee Compensation from Form 990PF

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Foundation Trustee Compensation from Form 990-PF

• Mark A. Hager
• University of Texas at San Antonio

In partnership with the Urban Institute, the
Foundation Center, and GuideStar through grants
from the C.S. Mott
Foundation and the Ford Foundation
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Some policy and management questions regarding
foundations

• What do private foundations do?
• How do they organize people to get work done?
• How many and which ones are staffed?
• How much do executive managers get paid?
• How many and which ones compensate trustees?
• How much do trustees get paid?
• What role do institutions play in foundation
  trusteeship?
  

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Sources of data

• Primary
• Surveys by national and regional associations of
  foundations, and occasional
  scholars.
  
• Coverage problems
• Non-response problems

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Sources of data

• Secondary / Administrative
• Annual private foundations reporting to IRS.
• Good coverage
• All Independent and Corporate foundations file
  Form 990-PF
  
• All Community foundations file Form 990
• Non-response is minimal issue
• And you get more detailed data than you could
  ever ask in a survey
  

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Two levels of data

• Organizational level (foundations) e.g.
• - Total assets
• Total giving and payout
• Type of foundation
• Charitable expenditures
• Total compensation and benefits paid
• Number of staff

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Two levels of data

• Individual level (people)

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Two sections

• One for highest paid employees
• One for officers, directors, trustees, and
  foundation managers.
  
• The goal is to code staff members separately
  from trustees.

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The Rub

• Some trustees are also staff members.
• In 2001, the highest paid foundation staff
  executive made almost 2,000,000. He was also a
  trustee.
  
• If you are doing an analysis of trustee
  compensation, you cant include people who earn
  their incomes as staff members.

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Conceptual Issue

• Where is the line between a staffer who
  participates in governance duties and a trustee
  who carries out the work of the foundation?
  

staff
trustee
?
Executive Director 80,000 / year benefits
40 hours / week
Governing Board 1,000 / year - no benefits 3
hours / week
President 32,000 / year - no benefits 20 hou
rs / week
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Code, Code, Code

• Largest 10,000 U.S. foundations listed 51,533
  individuals and institutions in 2001.
  

46,523 Individual Trustees
1,340 Institutional Trustees
3,670 Staff
Thats the hard part.
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46,523 Individual Trustees

• 7,140 receive compensation
• For all trustees
  2,417
  
• For compensated trustees 15,637
• For giving up to 500,000 10,564
• For giving over 50 million 37,604
• Community Foundations 8,348
• Corporate Foundations 7,494
• Independent Foundations 15,864

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1,340 Institutional Trustees

• Shouldnt confuse with trustees they function
  more like staff, or independent contractors.
  
• 1,250 were compensated in 2001
• 66,525 Highest 1,468,999
• Much more likely among independent foundations
• Smaller foundations more likely to have
  institutional trustees
  
• Larger foundations pay much higher fees

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Executive Staff

• Identified 1009 foundations with an executive
  manager coded as executive director,
  president, or chief executive officer.
  
• Median compensation 100,209
• Executive director median 75,000
• President or CEO median 144,153
• Community foundation median 75,348
• Independent foundation median 113,859
• note cant study corporate foundation
  executives with these data

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Re-aggregation

• Individual level data can be aggregated back to
  organizational level, eg
  
• Total trustee compensation paid out
• Number of trustees compensated
• Average trustee compensation
• Use as a characteristics to compare with other
  foundation characteristics.

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Take-aways

• 1. With a little work, you can learn a lot about
  private foundation trustee and executive
  compensation.
  
• 2. Foundation management and governance can be a
  pretty good gig.

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Thanks!

• Mark A. Hager
• Center for Community Business Research
• Institute for Economic Development
• University of Texas at San Antonio
• Mark.Hager_at_utsa.edu
• [phone]