About Our Data

Data Sources

ExecPayInsights is built on public regulatory filings submitted by tax-exempt organizations in the United States. These filings are required by law and include detailed compensation disclosures for officers, directors, trustees, and key employees.

The database currently includes:

  • 1,614,855 individual executives
  • 259,148 organizations
  • 4,923,080 individual compensation records
  • Filing years spanning 2001 through 2025

Compensation Figures

Total compensation includes three components as disclosed in regulatory filings:

  • Reportable compensation from the filing organization
  • Reportable compensation from related organizations
  • Other compensation (including deferred compensation, nontaxable benefits, and other)

These figures represent the complete compensation package as required to be disclosed in public filings. Compensation data is cross-referenced across multiple years of filings to identify trends and verify consistency.

Multi-Year Cross-Referencing

Executives often appear across multiple filing years and sometimes across multiple affiliated organizations. Records are linked to build comprehensive compensation histories, enabling tracking of pay trajectories over time. Name matching uses a combination of exact and normalized comparisons to accurately link records.

Contextual Benchmarks

Compensation is benchmarked against:

  • The median U.S. household income ($75,000, Census Bureau)
  • Sector averages based on organizational classification codes
  • Peer comparisons within the same organization
  • Historical trends for individual executives and organizations

Industry Classification

Organizations are classified by their National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) designation, a standardized system for categorizing tax-exempt organizations. These are grouped into 26 major sectors including Healthcare, Education, Philanthropy, and others.

Limitations

Data reflects compensation as disclosed in public filings. Filings may be submitted with varying lag times and may not capture the most recent compensation changes. Not all organizations are required to file the type of return that includes detailed compensation disclosures. This database represents a significant but not exhaustive view of the tax-exempt compensation landscape.

Updates

The database is updated as new filings become available. Each update incorporates newly released filings and may refine existing records where amended filings are submitted.