Dive Brief:
- Researchers at Florida State University have studied presidential pay and fundraising income and found no link between the two, throwing a wrench in the argument that highly paid presidents earn some of that money back for the institution through fundraising.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports the researchers looked at data from 119 public colleges from 2007 to 2013, analyzing donor contributions and state appropriations over one, two, and three years as well as salary data from The Chronicle's executive compensation survey, among other sources.
- Researchers tried to separate institutional characteristics that affect fundraising to drill down to the role of the president, finding, as in the corporate sector where highly paid executives do not translate to higher stock prices, highly paid presidents don't necessarily bring in more money.
Dive Insight:
One critique of the researcher's findings is based on the study timeline. Fundraising work in one year often lays the foundation for payoffs more than three years down the line. Fundraising directors know their work often sows the seeds for other people to reap. Furthermore, institutions need presidents to be good fundraisers, but some say that is not the biggest factor in the hiring decision so salaries are not set directly in relation to fundraising potential. Rather they are tied to the market or that institution’s history of executive compensation.
And, especially in a time of tight budgets and shrinking state investment, institutions have people at all levels of the organization contributing to an institutional fundraising effort, not just the president.