The 2013 Foundation Salary and Benefits Report is based on a survey of members of ASF, a membership organization of 2,500 foundations with few or no staff. All member foundations with paid staff (paid by the foundation) were eligible to participate. Member foundations with paid staff account for nearly 70% of our members, or more than 1,700 foundations.

Responses were received from 484 member foundations with paid staff, yielding a response rate of 26.5%.

About the Survey Respondents

• Most respondents (85%) are private grantmaking foundations. The remaining respondents are operating foundations (4%), public charities (4%), other foundations (4%), and community foundations or nonprofit funds (3%).


• More than half (52%) of respondents are family foundations, 47% are independently governed, and the remaining 2% are significantly influenced by a for-profit organization.


• Of the respondents, 31% reported 2011 year-end assets of less than $10 million, 46% reported assets from $10–$49.9 million, and 23% reported assets greater than $50 million.


• Respondents typically awarded fewer than 100 grants in 2012, with more than half (57%) awarding fewer than 50 grants in 2012.

ASF members may download the report for free

Not a member? Join today to receive this report and all benefits of ASF membership.

Every two years, more than a third of ASF members complete our Foundation Operations and Management Survey. Why do you – our members – and so many of your peers take the time to complete the survey? There’s many reasons – among them, the survey helps you:

• Operate efficiently and effectively. Nowhere else will you find such powerful benchmarking data for foundations like yours—from administrative expenses to investment returns and grantmaking strategies it is all in the survey.
• Share your story—your philanthropy matters! Taken individually, each table or graph is just that – a number or a snapshot. But collectively, they tell a powerful story about the contributions of ASF members to communities and causes across the country and around the world.

ASF’s Foundation Operations and Management Report is the only publication that provides comprehensive benchmarking information on how small-staff foundations like yours operate. 

To create that report, please submit your completed survey by June 21, 2013.

The 2013 Foundation Operations and Management Report will be released in the fall in print and electronic versions. ASF members will receive one free print copy of the report and can download copies free of charge from our website.

As always, specific foundations will not be identified in any way and your responses will remain confidential.

Thank you for contributing to this valuable resource.

Kathryn Petrillo-Smith
Managing Director

Not a member yet? Join today and participate in this survey, or purchase our 2011 Foundation Operations and Management Report. See all benefits of ASF membership.

Partner with ASF as we put connections front and center during the year’s premier conference for small-staff philanthropy and the largest since our sold-out 2012 National Conference. More than 300 participants will engage in daylong seminars, special learning labs, plenary keynotes, networking receptions, and other events.

Flexible partner engagements can provide your organization with exposure and value at this signature ASF program.

Learn about partnership opportunities for corporate and foundation support.

Questions? Please contact Corporate Partnership Manager at 202-580-6560.

A single person? A powerful notion indeed.

Kelly led a team developing technology that changed the world. As small-staff philanthropists, each of us also has the opportunity to affect change—large and small—within our communities. And that requires leadership as individuals, organizations, and a sector.

Because we recognize and believe strongly in the importance of leadership, ASF launched a Leadership Initiative to explore its essence in philanthropy and examine what it means for us as small-staff philanthropists. We entered this work with certain beliefs, which we’ve found to be true, including the notion that every individual in small-staff philanthropy can lead, whether a founder, trustee, staff member, family member, or advisor.

As I meet with members from across the country funding almost anything you can imagine, the constant refrain is the desire to make a difference. All want to be catalysts for improving their communities, whether a small geographic area or the natural environment shared by all. Although not always said in as many words, they want to be leaders.

Through our Leadership Initiative, ASF will be better able to nurture and celebrate your leadership. My hope—our hope—is that we will empower you to be catalysts and changemakers, helping you achieve the impact you desire and empower others to lead.

To begin, I encourage you to visit our Leadership Initiative page, where we’ve gathered tools and resources on the topic, including new articles from our quarterly publication, Essentials. Read our blog where we’re writing about the findings from our Leadership Initiative, and share your stories of leadership on Twitter using the hashtag #Path2Leadership.

I’ve had the privilege of engaging with the Leadership Initiative from its inception, and one learning continues to echo: Leadership isn’t about formal authority. This reminds me there are two ways to spell the word leader: Leader or leader. I submit that neither your title nor how you spell the word makes you a leader or prevents you from being one.

How can ASF support you as a leader?

Be sure to let me know.

Henry Berman
CEO
@Henry_ASF

ASF is proud to announce the Next Gen Fellows Program, an exclusive 6-month training opportunity for philanthropy’s next generation.

Spanning 50+ learning hours this June through December, the fellowship includes a 2-day training intensive in Washington, DC, plus registration and leadership roles during the CONNECT conference in Albuquerque. The fellowship also includes site visits, a personal learning agenda, and structured mentoring.

Be a part of this unique opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, access to experts, and a powerful peer group of young and future leaders in small-staffed foundations.

Learn more about this exciting opportunity and apply today

Hear how the interplay of needs, passions, and skills—and investments by her foundation and its partners—resulted in a new piece of the Washington, DC philanthropic landscape that elevates nonprofits that fall below the radar.

Barbara Harman is the executive director of the Harman Family Foundation and president and editor of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington, which has helped to raise more than $20 million for the Washington region’s smaller nonprofits.

Listen to podcast
Browse all podcasts in the series

Please complete the survey by February 22, 2013.

The resulting survey report will help you:

1. Manage your foundation better. Find the comparable benchmarks you need to determine salaries at your foundation – by region, experience, asset size, and more. It’s data that you can use!


2. Strengthen other small-staff foundations and the field of philanthropy. Contributing your information anonymously will make the aggregated data more trustworthy, so that other small-staff foundations can also set appropriate salaries. Every response helps all your peers.


3. Support ASF. Your participation in the survey is an easy way to make a gift to ASF. If the ASF survey has more responses, then the data is more reliable – and we can use it to serve our members better and maintain our reputation for excellence.

If your foundation has staff, help us reach our goal of 450 responses. The 2013 Salary & Benefits Report will be available to you and all ASF members to download for free, in May.

Complete the Foundation Salary and Benefits Survey today!

New in 2013, ASF members can download primers in PDF format for FREE.

ASF primers contain the most relevant information and real member stories to help you gain a solid grounding in legal essentials, grantmaking, family philanthropy, and much more.

This benefit is exclusive for ASF members and we hope you will take advantage of it and the many other resources available to you here on our website.

Check out these bestselling primer titles:

How to Start a Private Foundation (free for members and guests)
How to Avoid Self-Dealing
Getting to Impact Through Planning
Legal Essentials for Small Foundations
Getting to Impact Through Evaluation

Manager, Communications & Technology

The Manager of Communications & Technology is responsible for ensuring that ASF is effectively using technology and other communication tools to promote and deliver value to its core audiences. The ideal candidate must be a strong project manager, good communicator, and instinctive collaborator. He/she must have the ability to work both strategically and tactically and to be a true systems thinker.

See detailed job description