April 21, 2014 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Most surveys of executive compensation find a stubborn gender gap, with men making more money.
But that’s not true in the top ranks of fundraising, where women have smashed through the glass ceiling—and risen well above it.
Consider Anne McSweeney. In seven years—from 2002, when she joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to 2009—Ms. McSweeney’s compensation jumped from $370,000 to more than $1.4-million, including a $1-million bonus.
In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, Ms. McSweeney earned more than $1.2-million.
Susan Feagin, the top fundraiser at Columbia University, received more than $1-million in 2011, including a $520,000 bonus for her work on a big campaign to raise $4-billion; the drive ultimately attracted more than $6-billion.
Thriving at the Top
Ms. McSweeney and Ms. Feagin topped the list of the highest-paid fundraisers in The Chronicle’s study. They were the only two whose total compensation topped $1-million.
“This is a profession in which women have long thrived; if it ever had a glass ceiling, it was broken a really long time ago,” says Dennis Barden, a former fundraiser who now works at the Witt/Kieffer recruiting firm to fill development jobs.
“I am not surprised that Susan and Anne both made more than $1-million,” he says. “They deserve it. These two women have raised billions of dollars for their institutions.”
Rewards for Results
That seems borne out by the fundraising results reported by their institutions.
In 2009, for example, the year Ms. McSweeney earned the $1-million bonus, Memorial Sloan Kettering raised more than $173-million. By 2011, contributions had increased to $308.3-million.
In 2011, when Ms. Feagin got her $520,000 bonus, Columbia University raised $1.1-billion.
The study by The Chronicle, which examined fundraiser pay at organizations that each attracted more than $35-million from private sources, found that women and men were equally represented in that universe and that pay was equivalent.
Mr. Barden says women are getting paid so well in part because of the high demand for successful fundraising leaders and because nonprofits are making a greater effort to recruit women and minorities to top jobs.
“Those two dynamics,” he says, “have really brought women to the forefront.”
