Are Foundation CEOs Overpaid

Presidents of large, private foundations get paid too much.

How much? At foundations with budgets greater than $2 billion, the median CEO salary is more than $610,000 a year, not counting some very generous benefits and bonuses, according to the 2015 salary report from the Council on Foundations. That’s very generous. Too generous.

I don’t say that out of envy. (Not entirely, anyway.) I say that because by objective standards, CEOs of private foundations receive disproportionately large salaries given the relative simplicity of their jobs.