Where the middle 50% lands.
Half earn between $46k and $188k. That band is the interquartile range. The 90th percentile sits at $337k, roughly 3.4 times the median. That upper tail is where the largest organizations cluster.
| Percentile | Total comp | Means |
|---|---|---|
| 90th | $337,005 | Top 10% of earners |
| 75th | $187,980 | 25% earn more than this |
| 50th · median | $99,010 | The typical executive |
| 25th | $46,154 | 25% earn less than this |
| 10th | $17,850 | 10% of executives earn less than this |
How the package is built.
The typical pay structure across 4,650 organizations with full Schedule J reporting (34% of the 13,881 orgs in this slice). Each share is the average across orgs of the fraction of total comp that goes to this component, so the bar fills 100%.
The number in context.
Every row links to its own dedicated benchmark page.
All figures are median total reported compensation · IRS Form 990, Schedule J
Pay varies by state.
District of Columbia pays $80,990 more than the median Executive Director compensation in education nationally.
The ten highest-paid education Executive Directors by filing.
| # | Organization | Location | Total compensation | Filing year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Trustees Of Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | $14,662,060 | 2023 |
| 02 | The Board Of Trustees Of The Leland Stanford Junior University | Redwood City, CA | $6,329,748 | 2023 |
| 03 | Harvard Management Company Inc | Boston, MA | $6,228,717 | 2023 |
| 04 | The University Of Texastexas A&M Investment Management Company | Austin, TX | $5,340,513 | 2023 |
| 05 | Wake Forest University Health Sciences | Winstonsalem, NC | $5,244,157 | 2023 |
| 06 | Trustees Of Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | $5,097,808 | 2023 |
| 07 | University Of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | $4,981,275 | 2023 |
| 08 | Baylor College Of Medicine | Houston, TX | $4,452,336 | 2023 |
| 09 | University Of Miami | Coral Gables, FL | $4,284,984 | 2023 |
| 10 | Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | $3,966,472 | 2023 |
Total includes base, bonus, other reportable, and deferred/retirement compensation per Schedule J.
What does a $X org pay?
Adjust the slider to your organization's revenue. The median Executive Director compensation for education nonprofits in that revenue band updates live.
{sector} {role} pay, answered
- How much does a Education nonprofit Executive Director make?
- The median total compensation for a Executive Director at a education nonprofit is $99,010, based on 13,881 organizations in IRS Form 990 filings. The middle 50% fall between $46,154 and $187,980.
- What is the salary range for a Executive Director in Education nonprofits?
- Pay ranges from $46,154 at the 25th percentile to $187,980 at the 75th and $337,005 at the 90th. The spread reflects differences in organization size, budget, and region within the sector.
- Is this Education compensation data reliable?
- Yes. It comes from IRS Form 990 filings, legal documents filed under penalty of perjury, not self-reported surveys. Figures cover 13,881 education nonprofits reporting a Executive Director.
- Why does Education nonprofit Executive Director pay differ from other sectors?
- Compensation reflects the typical organization size, revenue, and operating complexity of each sector. Larger, better-funded education organizations pull the upper percentiles higher, while smaller ones anchor the lower end.