Live preview — download the board-ready PDF to attach to your minutes.Download the free PDF
Email yourself a copy:
PeerBasis
Compensation Comparability Determination

Heritage Instructional Services

Executive Director / CEO

EIN 270857636
MD · NTEE B80
FY ending 2025-07-31
June 9, 2026

This analysis benchmarks the total compensation of Cara Wilcox, Executive Director / CEO ($27,736) against every comparable organization that fit the selection criteria — 90 in total — drawn systematically from IRS Form 990 filings, not a hand-picked subset.

Compensation sits at approximately the 34th percentile of comparable organizationswithin the typical range

Benchmarked executive: Cara Wilcox — reported title “Program Admin”, selected as the organization's highest-paid individual — no exact title match, so confirm this is a comparable role.

How comparable organizations were selected

90 organizations qualified on sector, size, and geography 90 within the band form the benchmarked peer set.

Distribution of comparable compensation

$255 total compensation of comparable organizations → $190,079 $27,736
$6,77210th
$19,90925th
$46,704Median
$83,00475th
$97,42290th
$27,736This org · 34th
p10$6,772
p25$19,909
p50$46,704
p75$83,004
p90$97,422
$27,736

Comparable organizations

Each figure is Form 990 Part VII columns D + F (reportable pay plus other compensation and benefits; column F may include amounts from related organizations), normalized to MD cost of living (BEA RPP, 2023) and to its filing year (CPI-U); the reported amount is on each linked 990.

OrganizationStateRevenueMatched titleComp
(reported)
Comp
(adjusted)
FY
Project Ledo OR$282,845 President & Executive Director $87,629 $89,347 2024
Association Of Texas Small School Bands TX$282,096 Executive Director $60,000 $64,198 2025
College Athletic Trainer's Society TN$294,973 Executive Director $21,000 $24,236 2024
Inspirational Workshops WA$296,025 Founder & Ceo $92,096 $93,203 2023
Shared Harvest Foundation Inc CA$298,640 President $94,635 $89,720 2024
Families Aspiring In Trust And Holiness Catholic Home Education Community I FL$275,438 Officer $16,440 $16,957 2024
Mz Goose Inc FL$274,308 Ceo President $4,326 $4,461 2024
Lompoc Teen Center CA$303,847 Executive Director $46,172 $45,067 2023
Crowd To Community Inc AZ$304,114 Ceo Director $102,804 $111,757 2023
Naturopathic Medical Student Association OR$304,466 Executive Director $28,575 $29,135 2024
University At Albany NY$305,041 President (To May) $250 $255 2023
The Summer Institute Inc TX$271,230 Treasurer, Executive Director $18,462 $19,754 2025
Making The Right Connections Inc CA$269,550 President & Ceo $27,999 $26,545 2024
Friends Of Infinity Acres Ranch Inc VA$306,990 Executive Director $66,000 $69,966 2024
Capital Foundation Of New York Inc NY$268,835 President And Director $4,603 $4,567 2024
Youth Farm Project Inc NY$307,766 Co-director Of Education $72,927 $74,490 2023
Nassau-suffolk Performing Arts Ltd NY$308,214 Secretary & Treasurer $28,000 $27,779 2024
Indiana Council On Educating IN$308,662 Executive Di $72,000 $83,364 2024
The Attitude Is Everything Foundation AZ$267,282 Executive Director $47,687 $50,353 2024
Allied Resources For Children Inc NJ$309,139 Treasurer $7,200 $6,876 2025
Mifal Hafatza Inc NY$266,922 President $24,000 $23,811 2024
Manheim Township Educational Foundation PA$311,457 Executive Director $24,231 $26,530 2024
Ithaca Public Education Initiative Inc NY$313,363 Executive Director $42,500 $42,164 2024
Pops Passion NC$261,995 Executive Dir. $77,500 $90,516 2023
Associated Students Of Whittier College CA$258,096 President $5,349 $5,221 2023

Comp (reported) is the figure on each organization's Form 990 (columns D + F); Comp (adjusted) normalizes it to MD cost of living and 2025 dollars. Click any organization to verify the figure on ProPublica.

Methodology

Comparable organizations were drawn from electronically filed IRS Form 990 returns and matched on sector (NTEE code), budget (a size-adaptive revenue band that tightens as the organization grows), and geography (same-state first, broadening only when too few peers qualify); every organization within the band forms the peer set. To compare fairly across regions and years, peer compensation is normalized to MD cost of living (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2023) and to the subject's filing year (CPI-U). The figure benchmarked is Form 990 Part VII, Section A, columns D + F — reportable pay plus other compensation, benefits, and deferred amounts (column F may include amounts from related organizations) — with the chief executive matched by role. Related-organization amounts (column E) and institutional trustees are excluded. Full methodology: peerbasis.org/methodology.

Sample, role match & sensitivity

Sensitivity — the subject's percentile under alternative compensation definitions:

BasisSubject percentile
Total compensation (D + F), cost-of-living + inflation adjusted — the PeerBasis default34th
Total compensation (D + F), as reported (no adjustments)32nd
Reportable pay only (column D), adjusted38th
All sources (D + E + F), adjusted29th

If the percentile moves materially across these definitions, the result is sensitive to methodology choices, and the board should weigh which basis best fits its facts.

Rebuttable presumption of reasonableness · 26 CFR 53.4958-6

Compensation paid by a tax-exempt organization is presumed reasonable — shifting the burden to the IRS — when three requirements are met. This report supplies the comparability data for the second. The board should record the following in its minutes concurrently with its decision:

Draft board minutes — executive compensation

  1. The compensation of the Executive Director / CEO (Cara Wilcox) was approved in advance by [the Board / Compensation Committee], composed of members with no conflict of interest with respect to the arrangement.
  2. Prior to its determination, the authorized body obtained and relied upon appropriate comparability data, namely the PeerBasis Compensation Comparability Determination dated June 9, 2026, comparing compensation against 90 similarly situated organizations (Same NTEE sector (B80), nationwide + budget 0.67–1.5× revenue).
  3. The authorized body determined that total compensation of $27,736 is reasonable (approximately the 34th percentile of comparable organizations) and documented the basis for this determination concurrently, on [date], by a vote of [__ for / __ against].

Sources: IRS Form 990 e-file data (apps.irs.gov); IRS Business Master File (NTEE classification). Every figure traces to an original public filing — click any organization above to verify it on ProPublica. PeerBasis is a service of Prismind Analytics; its methodology is published, was commissioned for independent adversarial review, and discloses its own limitations. This report is comparability data to support a board's good-faith determination under IRC 4958; it is not legal or tax advice. Generated by PeerBasis on June 9, 2026.