Board-ready compensation comparability, from one EIN.
Establish the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness with defensible peer data and the board-minutes language to match — built from authoritative IRS Form 990 filings.
See a live example: The River Center (NH) — free, no signup.
Setting executive pay can put your board at personal risk.
Under Internal Revenue Code section 4958, board members who approve excessive compensation can face personal excise-tax penalties. The protection is the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness — and it requires comparability data on similarly situated organizations plus concurrent documentation in the minutes. Form 990 Part VI, Line 15 asks every nonprofit, every year, whether it did this.
Three steps to a defensible determination.
Enter the EIN
We pull the organization's most recent IRS Form 990 and its sector, budget, and location.
Review the peer set
PeerBasis assembles comparable nonprofits by sector, budget, and geography. Add or remove any you consider not comparable — the distribution updates live.
Generate the report
Download a board-ready PDF: percentiles, named comparables, methodology, and the 26 CFR 53.4958-6 minutes language.
A single document your board can rely on.
- Named comparable organizations — similarly situated by sector, budget, and geography, each citable to its IRS filing.
- Compensation percentiles and where the executive falls in the peer distribution.
- Transparent methodology — the exact peer-selection criteria and the tier used.
- Ready-to-adopt board minutes matching the three prongs of 26 CFR 53.4958-6.
Public filings, not a survey.
PeerBasis is built on the IRS Form 990 e-file dataset — the same returns nonprofits file with the federal government. There is no opaque survey panel and no bootstrap problem: every number traces to an original public filing.
A board-ready determination for $149.
PeerBasis is the only option that is organization-specific, defensible, and ready in minutes — not weeks or a generic average.
Custom and thorough, but expensive and takes weeks.
Organization-specific peer set, total-compensation percentiles, transparent methodology, and 26 CFR 53.4958-6 minutes — every figure traceable to an IRS filing.
National averages by category — not specific to your organization, and no minutes language.
Frequently asked
What is the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness?
Under IRC 4958, nonprofit executive compensation is presumed reasonable — shifting the burden of proof to the IRS — when three conditions are met: it is approved in advance by an authorized body free of conflicts of interest, that body relies on appropriate comparability data, and the basis for the decision is documented concurrently in the minutes. PeerBasis supplies the comparability data and the minutes language.
What is reasonable compensation for a nonprofit executive director?
Reasonable compensation is the amount that would ordinarily be paid for like services by like organizations under like circumstances — the IRC 4958 standard. It is assessed on total compensation (salary plus benefits and deferred compensation) relative to executives at organizations of similar mission, budget, and location. PeerBasis builds that comparison from IRS Form 990 filings, typically against about 25 similarly situated nonprofits.
How do I document executive compensation in board minutes?
To support the rebuttable presumption, the board minutes should record — concurrently with the decision — that an authorized body free of conflicts of interest approved the compensation in advance, that it relied on appropriate comparability data, and the basis for concluding the amount is reasonable. A PeerBasis report includes ready-to-adopt minutes language matching the three requirements of 26 CFR 53.4958-6.
How many comparable organizations do I need?
For an organization with under $1 million in annual gross receipts, the regulations (26 CFR 53.4958-6) permit relying on data from as few as five comparable organizations. PeerBasis assembles a tighter set of similarly situated nonprofits — typically around 25 — so the distribution is stable and defensible.
Where does the data come from?
Every figure comes from IRS Form 990 filings, the public annual returns nonprofits file with the federal government. Sector classification (NTEE) comes from the IRS Business Master File. Each comparable in a report is traceable to its original filing.
How are comparable organizations selected?
Candidates are matched on sector (NTEE code), budget (total revenue within 0.5–2x of the subject), and geography, then narrowed to the closest peers by budget. Where an exact-sector, in-state set is too small, the criteria broaden in a fixed, documented order. The report states exactly which peer-selection tier was used.
Is a PeerBasis report legal or tax advice?
No. A PeerBasis report is comparability data and supporting documentation to help a board make and record a good-faith determination under IRC 4958. It is not legal or tax advice; boards should consult their own counsel.
What does a report cost?
A board-ready comparability report is $149 — a single, defensible document with named comparables, percentiles, methodology, source citations, and ready-to-adopt board-minutes language.
Build your comparability report.
One search away from a defensible, board-ready determination — free to preview, in minutes.