How The Chronicle Conducted Its Annual Survey of Pay at Big Nonprofit Groups

The Chronicle’s 12th annual salary survey examines what the nation’s largest nonprofit

organizations pay their top officials. This year’s survey gathered data from 309 charities and foundations.

The organizations in the salary survey are those that ranked highest in their categories on the 2003 Philanthropy 400, The Chronicle’s annual list of the charities that raise the most money from private sources. Several charities that were not included in the 400 listing were also asked to provide information because in some categories only a handful of organizations raised enough to make the list. Organizations added to the survey were those that raised the next-highest amounts after those in the Philanthropy 400.

In addition, The Chronicle gathered compensation figures for the 50 wealthiest private foundations, and the 20 operating foundations and 15 community foundations that have the most assets.

Officials of nonprofit organizations were asked to fill out a survey and provide supporting information from their Form 990 informational tax returns and audited financial statements. They were asked to provide information for the 2003 fiscal year — or, if their fiscal years ended in January, February, or March, for 2004.

Top Officials

The survey sought information about each organization’s chief executive and the employee other than the chief executive whose compensation was the highest. The Chronicle also asked organizations to provide information about the employee whose regular compensation was the highest at the organization, and not someone whose compensation was inflated by a one-time payment, such as a severance or pension payout.

Seventy-nine organizations in the survey received permission from the Internal Revenue Service to delay filing their informational tax returns for the 2003 or 2004 fiscal year.

However, 33 of those organizations provided their most current compensation information. Figures provided for the other 46 groups were based on 2002 or 2003 data.

Four religious groups — the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers), St. Labre Indian School, Wesleyan Church, and Willow Creek Community Church — declined to provide information. Religious organizations do not have to file informational returns with the IRS.

The Salvation Army, also a religious organization, did not provide compensation figures for its fiscal year ending in 2003. The charity provided data on its chief executive and its highest-paid employee for the previous year but did not provide the name of the second official, who was identified as a development director.

The survey form asked for breakdowns of the financial data reported on the Form 990.

The breakdowns show how charities report deferred compensation, pensions, housing allowances, and other payments to top officials.

The Chronicle’s tables show the breakdowns of deferred compensation, bonuses, housing allowances, and other payments when that information was provided by organizations; however, such information does not have to be provided on the Form 990, and therefore those details are unavailable for organizations that did not complete the survey.

Although the salary survey shows what many top nonprofit officials earn, it does not necessarily include all of the highest earners. Some smaller, less-wealthy nonprofit groups that are not included in the survey may pay their executives more money. Some large organizations are not included in the Philanthropy 400 because they raise relatively little from private sources.

Some organizations had just one employee who was paid a salary; other organizations had more than one employee who made the same salary. The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation listed five officials, rather than two, because the five top executives all have the same title and make the same salary.

At other organizations that reported two or more equally compensated employees who ranked as the highest paid, The Chronicle added together compensation, benefits, and expenses to determine the higher-paid employee. Three organizations — Campus Crusade for Christ International, Lutheran Services in America, and Tulsa Community Foundation — did not have a second executive other than the director.

The tables with the survey results list people who held their jobs in the most recent fiscal year for which data was available. In some cases, those employees no longer serve in those roles.

The Chronicle’

s salary survey was compiled by Leah Kerkman and Cassie J. Moore, with assistance from Jon Aikman.