Updated April 2026
CEO CompensationCEO Pay: $1M to $5M
0 nonprofits report top-officer compensation in the $1m to $5m band on the most recent IRS Form 990 Schedule J. Average compensation across the band is $0; combined revenue across the same organizations totals $0.
CEOs earning between $1 million and $5 million
What This Pay Band Looks Like
Total compensation between $1M and $5M is the most common pay tier among the largest U.S. nonprofits. The 0 top officers in this band run regional health systems, mid-tier private universities, established national charities, and major foundations. Comp ratios at this scale typically run between 0.1% and 1% of revenue, depending on organizational size.
CEO-pay ranges aggregate organizations by the total compensation reported for the highest-paid officer on Schedule J of the Form 990. The 0 $1m to $5m in this band cover a wide variety of categories and revenue scales.
| # | Organization | Category | CEO Pay | Revenue | Grade |
|---|
No nonprofits in this CEO pay range.
How to Read CEO Pay Across Different Sectors
Hospital and university executives reliably top the nonprofit compensation tables because they compete for the same talent as for-profit health systems and corporate executives. Disease-research foundations and large arts institutions sit a step below. Advocacy groups and direct-service charities cluster in the lower bands, where compensation is closer to senior-staff scale than to corporate-executive scale.
When reading any single number, the comp-to-revenue ratio is the single most useful comparison metric. A 0.5% ratio is typical for organizations over $500M in revenue; a 5% ratio is typical for organizations under $10M. Numbers far outside the typical band for the organization’s revenue tier are the ones that warrant a closer look at Schedule J line items.
The NonprofitTruth Efficiency Score is a 0–100 composite that summarizes four signals from the Form 990: program-spending ratio (50% of the score), revenue-growth consistency over multiple years (20%), months of fund reserves on the balance sheet (20%), and CEO compensation as a share of revenue (10%). The grade A–F mapping is purely descriptive — it summarizes the financial structure that the 990 reveals, not the social impact, program quality, or outcomes of the work the organization does. Donors evaluating impact should pair these financial signals with program-level evaluations from sources like Charity Navigator, GiveWell, or the organization's own audited reports.
Source Data and Verification
All financials on this page come from each organization's IRS Form 990 — the federal information return that 501(c)(3) public charities, private foundations, and most other tax-exempt organizations must file annually. The Form 990 is a public document. We ingest it primarily through the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer feed, which mirrors the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search dataset. Original e-file XML and PDF copies of any return can be looked up directly at the IRS, ProPublica, or the Candid (formerly GuideStar) directory.
Schedule J of every Form 990 in this list is available free from the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, and the Candid (GuideStar) directory. ProPublica is the easiest path to view multi-year compensation history in a single view.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does $1M to $5M mean here?
CEOs earning between $1 million and $5 million. The threshold uses total compensation from the Form 990 Schedule J — base salary, bonus, deferred compensation, retirement contributions, and non-taxable benefits combined.
Why is total compensation higher than base salary in many filings?
Schedule J reports total compensation, which adds bonus, deferred-compensation vesting, retirement plan contributions, and non-taxable benefits to base pay. A CEO with a $500K base salary can show $900K of total compensation in the year a multi-year deferred-comp package vests, then return to roughly $500K the next year. Comparing to the prior year’s 990 is the only reliable way to see whether a high number is recurring or one-time.
Does compensation in this band signal an inefficient charity?
Not on its own. The Efficiency Score weights CEO compensation as a ratio to revenue, not as an absolute number. A $4M CEO at a $4B health system represents 0.1% of revenue; a $400K CEO at a $4M nonprofit represents 10%. The ratio matters more than the headline figure when comparing organizations of different scales.
How is this list sorted?
Highest compensation first within the band. Each row links to the organization’s NonprofitTruth profile, which cites the source Form 990 filing year and the underlying figures from Schedule J.
Where can I see the original Schedule J filing?
Click any organization to open its profile, then follow the link to the source IRS Form 990 on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search or the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Schedule J is part of the standard 990 attachment set.
0 nonprofits report top-officer compensation in the $1m to $5m band on the most recent IRS Form 990 Schedule J. Average compensation across the band is $0; combined revenue across the same organizations totals $0.