Where the middle 50% lands.
Half earn between $56k and $255k. That band is the interquartile range. The 90th percentile sits at $493k, roughly 3.9 times the median. That upper tail is where the largest organizations cluster.
| Percentile | Total comp | Means |
|---|---|---|
| 90th | $492,767 | Top 10% of earners |
| 75th | $255,371 | 25% earn more than this |
| 50th · median | $126,498 | The typical executive |
| 25th | $56,096 | 25% earn less than this |
| 10th | $23,627 | 10% of executives earn less than this |
How the package is built.
The typical pay structure across 301 organizations with full Schedule J reporting (41% of the 729 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 $111,778 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 | The Jackson Laboratory | Bar Harbor, ME | $2,108,278 | 2023 |
| 03 | Beckman Research Institute Of The City Of Hope | Duarte, CA | $1,967,670 | 2023 |
| 04 | American Association For Cancer Research Inc | Philadelphia, PA | $1,874,169 | 2024 |
| 05 | The Feinstein Institutes For Medical Research | Westbury, NY | $1,809,053 | 2024 |
| 06 | The Scripps Research Institute | La Jolla, CA | $1,795,643 | 2023 |
| 07 | The Translational Genomics Research Institute | Phoenix, AZ | $1,667,331 | 2023 |
| 08 | Howard Hughes Medical Institute | Chevy Chase, MD | $1,660,638 | 2023 |
| 09 | The Michael J Fox Foundation For Parkinson'S Research | New York, NY | $1,524,299 | 2024 |
| 10 | Riverside Research Institute | Fairfax, VA | $1,379,901 | 2024 |
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.