Nonprofit organizations serve in the public trust. Go here for more information about how and why we did our investigation. Read our findings below.
Nonprofits facing revenue losses say executive pay raises necessary
Credit: VTA
Credit: VTA
CEO compensation for the area’s largest nonprofits range from $12 million at the Dayton-based health insurer CareSource to $37,887 for Caring Partnership International, a Franklin-based organization that provides medical supplies and health care services throughout the world.
These nonprofits and others increased their executive pay from 2021 to 2023 despite seeing revenue losses from 2021 to 2023, a Dayton Daily News investigation found.
CareSource CEO paid $12M as nonprofit revenue dropped $1B
CareSource CEO Erhardt Preitauer’s total compensation in 2023 exceeded $12 million, making him by far the highest-paid executive among nonprofits in the region, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of IRS data.
This included a nearly $6.2 million bonus, spiking his compensation — from $7.9 million in 2022, including a nearly $1.3 million bonus — in a year when the Dayton-based health insurer recorded a drop in revenues of more than $1 billion.
From Wittenberg to Wilberforce to welding institute, area private school leaders’ pay rose as revenues declined
Private educational institutions saw particularly large differences between revenue declines and compensation increases in a Dayton Daily News investigation of nonprofit leader compensation.
Wittenberg University’s former president Michael Frandsen’s salary grew 15.7% to $365,133 from 2021 to 2023 while the university’s revenues dropped 13.1%.
Government funding cuts put most Ohio nonprofits at risk
Credit: Josh Sweigart
Credit: Josh Sweigart
As the Trump administration continues its goal to cut down government spending, it’s unclear what funding will or won’t be available to nonprofits over the next few years.
But federal restructuring and cuts in 2025 have already been felt locally. This includes the elimination the federal staff of a program that help seniors pay for heat and air-conditioning, the claw-back of funding for public media outlets and more.
Without government grants, roughly 72% of Ohio nonprofits would be at risk of operating at a loss, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute.
Search: How much area’s largest nonprofits pay their top-paid employees
Federal law requires transparency of nonprofits in exchange for getting tax breaks, donations from the public and often considerable government funding. For many, that includes listing on publicly accessible tax forms how much they pay their top executives.
The Dayton Daily News this year used these records to investigate executive pay at area nonprofits. Our reporters analyzed revenues and compensation for 100 of our area’s largest nonprofits from 2021 to 2023, the most recent year for which most organizations have filed records with the IRS.
How and why we investigated area nonprofit CEO pay
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Dayton Daily News reporters obtained IRS nonprofit filing data to identify the largest nonprofits in our region, and went through publicly available filings to create a database of revenue and compensation trends over three years for the top 100.