Foundations not compensating board members

Findings from a study titled  “What Drives Foundation Expenses & Compensation?” were released recently. The Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the Foundation Center and GuideStar collaborated on The Foundation Expenses and Compensation Project, "the first large-scale, longterm, systematic study of independent, corporate,and community foundations’ expense and compensation patterns and the factors behind them." It focused on the 10,000 largest US grantmaking foundations in the years 2001-2003. Regarding foundation compensation, the Project found that:

• Most foundations do not compensate any staff or board members. More than half report no compensation, benefits or payroll tax expenses.
• Of the 10,000 foundations studied, 2,938 have paid staff.
• Most board members do not receive compensation. Of the foundations surveyed, 2,571 compensated individual non-staff board members.
• Approximately one in eight foundations studied name a bank or other institution to represent the foundation. In many small foundations, these institutional trustees are often the foundation’s sole representative.
  

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