Where the middle 50% lands.
Half earn between $57k and $257k. That band is the interquartile range. The 90th percentile sits at $516k, roughly 4.1 times the median. That upper tail is where the largest organizations cluster.
| Percentile | Total comp | Means |
|---|---|---|
| 90th | $515,567 | Top 10% of earners |
| 75th | $256,788 | 25% earn more than this |
| 50th · median | $125,000 | The typical executive |
| 25th | $57,278 | 25% earn less than this |
| 10th | $22,224 | 10% of executives earn less than this |
How the package is built.
The typical pay structure across 320 organizations with full Schedule J reporting (42% of the 767 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.
Maryland pays $123,659 more than the median Executive Director compensation in medical research nationally.
The ten highest-paid medical research Executive Directors by filing.
| # | Organization | Location | Total compensation | Filing year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Sutter Bay Medical Foundation | Sacramento, CA | $2,791,767 | 2023 |
| 02 | Benaroya Research Institute At Virginia | Seattle, WA | $2,646,290 | 2023 |
| 03 | The Jackson Laboratory | Bar Harbor, ME | $2,108,278 | 2023 |
| 04 | Beckman Research Institute Of The City Of Hope | Duarte, CA | $1,967,670 | 2023 |
| 05 | American Association For Cancer Research Inc | Philadelphia, PA | $1,874,169 | 2024 |
| 06 | The Feinstein Institutes For Medical Research | Westbury, NY | $1,809,053 | 2024 |
| 07 | The Scripps Research Institute | La Jolla, CA | $1,795,643 | 2023 |
| 08 | Stowers Institute For Medical Research | Kansas City, MO | $1,722,794 | 2023 |
| 09 | The Translational Genomics Research Institute | Phoenix, AZ | $1,667,331 | 2023 |
| 10 | Howard Hughes Medical Institute | Chevy Chase, MD | $1,660,638 | 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 medical research nonprofits in that revenue band updates live.
{sector} {role} pay, answered
- How much does a Medical Research nonprofit Executive Director make?
- The median total compensation for a Executive Director at a medical research nonprofit is $125,000, based on 767 organizations in IRS Form 990 filings. The middle 50% fall between $57,278 and $256,788.
- What is the salary range for a Executive Director in Medical Research nonprofits?
- Pay ranges from $57,278 at the 25th percentile to $256,788 at the 75th and $515,567 at the 90th. The spread reflects differences in organization size, budget, and region within the sector.
- Is this Medical Research compensation data reliable?
- Yes. It comes from IRS Form 990 filings, legal documents filed under penalty of perjury, not self-reported surveys. Figures cover 767 medical research nonprofits reporting a Executive Director.
- Why does Medical Research nonprofit Executive Director pay differ from other sectors?
- Compensation reflects the typical organization size, revenue, and operating complexity of each sector. Larger, better-funded medical research organizations pull the upper percentiles higher, while smaller ones anchor the lower end.