Tax Bill Targets Million-Dollar Club of Nonprofit Executives
November 6, 2017 | Read Time: 5 minutes
At least 118 nonprofit chief executives earned more than $1 million in 2014 or 2015 — a figure that would trigger a 20 percent excise tax on their organizations under the Republican bill unveiled last week.
The ramifications of the bill extend well beyond CEOs. Many organizations have multiple employees earning more than $1 million a year. (A recent Wall Street Journal analysis identified 2,700 nonprofit executives who made seven figures in 2014, including investment managers, college coaches, and surgeons.)
The Chronicle analysis found at least two fundraisers who earned more than $1 million: Mark Kostegan ($1.01 million in total compensation) of the Mt. Sinai Health System and Albert Checcio ($1.06 million) of the University of Southern California.
Under the bill, nonprofits would pay the excise tax on the portion of an employee’s pay exceeding $1 million. The tax would apply only to the five highest-paid officials who make seven figures.
Hospitals Under Threat
More than half of the nonprofit institutions that paid at least $1 million to their top official in 2014 or 2015 were hospitals or medical centers, including the Cleveland Clinic, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and Mayo Clinic. Others include private universities (Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania, among them); national nonprofits (the American Heart Association; United Way Worldwide); and prominent cultural institutions (the Lincoln Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Below is The Chronicle’s list of CEOs with salaries exceeding $1 million in the most recent year for which data is available. In some cases, the employees may no longer work for those organizations.
The analysis includes only nonprofits that raise $35 million or more from private sources. Compensation includes base salary, bonus, benefits, and deferred pay when it is paid out.
In a few cases, officials received pay from a related organization as well. That compensation was included in the total.
For Chronicle subscribers: See also our searchable database of CEO compensation information going back to 2012. The database is updated regularly as the IRS makes information available.
| Top Official | Organization | Total compensation | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lloyd Dean | Dignity Health | $6,706,341 | 2014 |
| Thomas Donohue | US Chamber of Commerce Foundation | $6,609,387 | 2015 |
| Robert Kelly | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital | $6,387,273 | 2015 |
| Bernard Tyson | Kaiser Foundation Hospitals | $5,897,696 | 2015 |
| Jeffrey Romoff | UPMC Health System | $5,765,436 | 2014 |
| Steven Altschuler | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia | $5,152,250 | 2014 |
| Rod Hochman | Providence Health and Services – Oregon | $5,128,224 | 2015 |
| Steven Corwin | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital | $4,911,921 | 2015 |
| Delos Cosgrove | Cleveland Clinic | $4,867,722 | 2015 |
| Steven Safyer | Montefiore Medical Center | $4,318,148 | 2015 |
| Kenneth Davis | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | $4,121,255 | 2015 |
| Mark Wallace | Texas Children’s Hospital | $3,837,480 | 2014 |
| Dean Harrison | Northwestern Memorial Healthcare | $3,610,782 | 2014 |
| Charles David Cerullo | Inspirational Network | $3,603,706 | 2014 |
| Nancy Schlicting | Henry Ford Health System | $3,539,427 | 2014 |
| Gerald Turner | Southern Methodist University | $3,354,128 | 2014 |
| Michael Dowling | Northwell Health Foundation | $3,245,207 | 2015 |
| Richard Cordova | Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles | $3,162,266 | 2014 |
| David Harris | American Jewish Committee | $3,142,173 | 2015 |
| Amir Dan Rubin | Stanford Health Care | $3,085,266 | 2014 |
| Gary Gottlieb | Partners Healthcare System | $3,056,946 | 2014 |
| Thomas F. Zenty III | University Hospitals Health System | $3,050,884 | 2015 |
| Amy Gutmann | University of Pennsylvania | $2,962,708 | 2014 |
| Marna Borgstrom | Yale New Haven Hospital | $2,816,531 | 2014 |
| Craig Thompson | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | $2,657,347 | 2015 |
| Thomas Priselac | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | $2,621,527 | 2014 |
| Steve Allen | Nationwide Children’s Hospital | $2,599,106 | 2015 |
| John Noseworthy | Mayo Clinic | $2,462,127 | 2015 |
| Lee Bollinger | Columbia University | $2,447,032 | 2014 |
| James Ramsey | University of Louisville | $2,428,886 | 2014 |
| Alan Guerci | St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center | $2,409,285 | 2015 |
| Robert Beall | Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | $2,375,537 | 2015 |
| Morton Schapiro | Northwestern University | $2,352,578 | 2014 |
| Louis Shapiro | Hospital for Special Surgery | $2,273,261 | 2015 |
| Robert Willard | Institute of Nuclear Power Operations | $2,220,187 | 2015 |
| Margaret Foti | American Association for Cancer Research | $2,192,019 | 2014 |
| Christopher Durovich | Children’s Medical Center Foundation | $2,131,864 | 2014 |
| Brian Keeley | Baptist Health South Florida | $2,086,818 | 2014 |
| Robert Zimmer | University of Chicago | $2,051,089 | 2014 |
| Marc Boom | Methodist Hospital Foundation | $1,941,783 | 2014 |
| Charles Sorenson Jr. | IHC Health Services | $1,936,996 | 2014 |
| Paul Klotman | Baylor College of Medicine | $1,901,552 | 2014 |
| Barry Shrage | Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston | $1,892,402 | 2014 |
| Kurt Newman | Children’s National Medical Center | $1,887,879 | 2014 |
| Randall Oostra | Promedica Health System | $1,870,948 | 2015 |
| Nancy Brown | American Heart Association | $1,809,978 | 2015 |
| Calvin Knight | John Muir Physician Network | $1,808,601 | 2015 |
| Kelby Krabbenhoft | Sanford University | $1,772,868 | 2014 |
| Deborah Borda | Los Angeles Philharmonic | $1,714,486 | 2014 |
| William Leaver | UnityPoint Health | $1,702,967 | 2014 |
| Sandra Fenwick | Boston Children’s Hospital | $1,662,456 | 2014 |
| Eli Feldman | Metropolitan Jewish Health System | $1,657,483 | 2014 |
| Albert Zimmerli | Intermountain Healthcare Foundation | $1,651,190 | 2015 |
| Arthur Ushijima | Queens Medical Center | $1,621,822 | 2014 |
| David Skorton | Cornell University | $1,618,328 | 2014 |
| Joseph Wilczek | Franciscan Medical Group | $1,608,971 | 2014 |
| William Brody | Salk Institute for Biological Studies | $1,581,118 | 2014 |
| Christopher Dawes | Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital | $1,580,272 | 2014 |
| John McConnell | Wake Forest University Health Sciences | $1,571,192 | 2014 |
| Donna Shalala | University of Miami | $1,570,761 | 2014 |
| Eugene Michalski | William Beaumont Hospital | $1,556,426 | 2014 |
| Chrysostomos Nikias | University of Southern California | $1,525,297 | 2014 |
| Neil Meltzer | LifeBridge Health | $1,525,137 | 2014 |
| John Sexton | New York University | $1,484,685 | 2014 |
| Marc Tessier-Lavigne | Rockefeller University | $1,476,679 | 2014 |
| David Bailey | Nemours Children’s Health System | $1,474,562 | 2015 |
| David Chao | Stowers Institute for Medical Research | $1,444,386 | 2015 |
| Robert Stone | City of Hope National Medical Center | $1,427,773 | 2014 |
| Ronald Daniels | Johns Hopkins University | $1,417,109 | 2014 |
| Narendra Kini | Variety Children’s Hospital | $1,410,073 | 2015 |
| Clive Gillinson | Carnegie Hall Corporation | $1,404,948 | 2014 |
| Richard Haass | Council on Foreign Relations | $1,404,447 | 2015 |
| Nicholas Zeppos | Vanderbilt University | $1,377,924 | 2014 |
| Steven Lufburrow | Goodwill Industries of Houston | $1,338,962 | 2014 |
| Lee Fetter | St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation | $1,332,544 | 2014 |
| Shirley Ann Jackson | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | $1,331,172 | 2014 |
| Thomas Campbell | Metropolitan Museum of Art | $1,321,445 | 2014 |
| Donna Hyland | Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation | $1,319,945 | 2014 |
| Edward Benz Jr. | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | $1,318,868 | 2014 |
| Alan List | H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute | $1,293,961 | 2014 |
| John Fry | Drexel University | $1,284,630 | 2014 |
| David Torchiana | Partners Healthcare System | $1,283,446 | 2014 |
| Duane Dauner | California Health Foundation and Trust | $1,264,406 | 2015 |
| Yitzhak Gershon | Friends of the Israel Defense Forces | $1,259,949 | 2014 |
| Steadman Upham | University of Tulsa | $1,221,152 | 2014 |
| Michael Govan | Los Angeles County Museum of Art | $1,218,955 | 2014 |
| Robert Brown | Boston University | $1,218,869 | 2014 |
| Joel Seligman | University of Rochester | $1,218,170 | 2014 |
| Robert Cannon | Barnes-Jewish Hospital | $1,206,590 | 2015 |
| Richard Brodhead | Duke University | $1,200,386 | 2014 |
| Thomas Hansen | Seattle Children’s Hospital | $1,190,920 | 2014 |
| Steven Knapp | George Washington University | $1,170,264 | 2014 |
| Brian Gallagher | United Way Worldwide | $1,155,701 | 2014 |
| Barbara Snyder | Case Western Reserve University | $1,154,775 | 2014 |
| Michael Lomax | United Negro College Fund | $1,143,265 | 2014 |
| Kevin Tracey | Feinstein Institute for Medical Research | $1,141,733 | 2015 |
| Kristiina Vuori | Burnham Institute for Medical Research | $1,134,925 | 2014 |
| James Barba | Albany Medical Center | $1,122,170 | 2014 |
| David Winter | HealthTexas Provider Network | $1,100,946 | 2014 |
| Joseph Aoun | Northeastern University | $1,090,414 | 2014 |
| Nathan Hatch | Wake Forest University | $1,084,511 | 2014 |
| John Fahey Jr. | National Geographic Society | $1,082,135 | 2014 |
| Arthur Brooks | American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research | $1,076,522 | 2015 |
| James Wagner | Emory University | $1,075,464 | 2014 |
| Michael Fisher | Children’s Hospital Medical Center | $1,070,817 | 2014 |
| David Myers | American Institutes for Research | $1,067,815 | 2014 |
| Larry Hausner | American Diabetes Association | $1,061,541 | 2014 |
| John Hennessy | Stanford University | $1,051,338 | 2014 |
| Cliff Robertson | CHI Health | $1,050,258 | 2014 |
| David Leebron | Rice University | $1,048,994 | 2014 |
| James Williams Jr. | Easter Seals | $1,045,150 | 2014 |
| David Hawn | ECMC Group | $1,043,518 | 2015 |
| Ellen Futter | American Museum of Natural History | $1,040,281 | 2014 |
| Lawrence Corey | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center | $1,021,738 | 2014 |
| Joseph Jasser | CHW Medical Foundation | $1,009,313 | 2014 |
| John Haupert | Grady Memorial Hospital | $1,006,713 | 2014 |
| John Jenkins | University of Notre Dame | $1,005,548 | 2014 |
| Jed Bernstein | Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts | $1,003,722 | 2014 |
