How do I take a director’s salary?

The rules for calculating this are highly variable, including but not limited to the following:

• The wages you make in other employment situations.
• The wages made by other Foundation directors.
  • There are a few different ways that the IRS calculates this. For example, in 2023 Bernard Tyson of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan took a wage of $15,709,853 so that’s probably not even possible for most of us.
• The typical wage for Private Foundation directors.
  • This is currently benchmarked at $159,000 per year on average.
• A percentage of the Foundations total net worth.
  • 10% is typically a very safe number.
• A reasonable proportion to the value and increase in net worth from the efforts you bring to the Foundation in terms of dollars raised or generated at your direction.
  • How valuable are you to the Foundation? How much money have you raised and how well do you manage the Foundation’s assets? What would that be worth in any other business?