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

Northwest Creative & Expressive

Executive Director / CEO

EIN 473548151
WA · NTEE A99
FY ending 2025-03-31
June 9, 2026

This analysis benchmarks the total compensation of Sibel Golden, Executive Director / CEO ($53,773) against every comparable organization that fit the selection criteria — 77 in total — drawn systematically from IRS Form 990 filings, not a hand-picked subset.

Compensation sits at approximately the 52nd percentile of comparable organizationswithin the typical range

Benchmarked executive: Sibel Golden — reported title “EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR”, a direct title match to the Executive Director / CEO role.

How comparable organizations were selected

77 organizations qualified on sector, size, and geography 77 within the band form the benchmarked peer set.

Distribution of comparable compensation

$834 total compensation of comparable organizations → $102,698 $53,773
$7,67710th
$24,31525th
$51,033Median
$66,49775th
$82,39490th
$53,773This org · 52nd
p10$7,677
p25$24,315
p50$51,033
p75$66,497
p90$82,394
$53,773

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 WA 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
Marin Open Studios CA$212,519 Executive Dir. $52,507 $51,981 2024
Rome Historical Society Inc NY$212,619 Executive Di $55,267 $58,948 2023
Space Cowboys Collective CA$211,775 Chief Executive Officer $1,300 $1,325 2023
Ventura Audubon Society CA$211,531 Director $3,789 $3,751 2024
Broad Room Creative Collective Sacramento CA$211,336 Executive Director $41,204 $40,792 2024
Papageno Society Inc NY$213,603 Treasurer $80,000 $82,880 2024
Foothills Resource Group TN$215,324 Director $50,400 $62,532 2023
Guthrie Center Corp MA$207,729 Clerk/ Direc $15,445 $15,913 2024
Second Line Arts Collective LA$206,547 Executive Director $23,804 $30,051 2024
Artists Image Resource Inc PA$218,967 Board Member & Executive D $52,000 $59,453 2024
5p Society CA$219,370 Executive Vp $50,000 $49,500 2024
Smith-lemli-opitz Foundation ND$205,034 President $20,800 $26,943 2023
Firehouse Projects CA$220,000 Director $75,000 $76,442 2023
Mauliola Keehi HI$203,654 Executive Director $62,083 $65,608 2023
Intersectioninc NY$203,596 President $60,167 $62,333 2024
Wisdom Circles Oceania HI$222,230 Executive Director $41,960 $44,342 2023
The House Of Afros Capes & Curls Inc NE$202,047 Executive Dir. $60,000 $76,173 2023
Sensory Theatre Endless Possibilities Inc VA$201,474 Executive Director/slp $32,293 $36,804 2023
American Topical Association SC$199,682 Executive Di $54,123 $64,735 2024
Glendale Arts CA$199,034 Ceo $89,804 $86,614 2025
Dimensions Variable (Dv) FL$198,940 Co-founder & Chair $21,754 $23,430 2024
Education & Community CO$228,000 Executive Director $52,500 $59,420 2023
Blindspot Collective CA$229,118 Director $21,925 $22,347 2023
Bridge Street Theatre Inc NY$194,702 Artistic And Managing Director $10,000 $10,666 2023
Remember The Triangle Fire Coalition NY$192,817 Treasurer/project Financia $58,000 $60,088 2024

Comp (reported) is the figure on each organization's Form 990 (columns D + F); Comp (adjusted) normalizes it to WA 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 WA 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 default52nd
Total compensation (D + F), as reported (no adjustments)64th
Reportable pay only (column D), adjusted52nd
All sources (D + E + F), adjusted51st

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 (Sibel Golden) 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 77 similarly situated organizations (Same NTEE sector (A99), nationwide + budget 0.67–1.5× revenue).
  3. The authorized body determined that total compensation of $53,773 is reasonable (approximately the 52nd 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.