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PeerBasis
Compensation Comparability Determination

District Council 5 Apprenticeship &

Executive Director / CEO

EIN 916065393
WA · NTEE B94
FY ending 2024-08-31
June 9, 2026

This analysis benchmarks the total compensation of Sarah Swarthout, Executive Director / CEO ($163,268) against the 2000 closest of 2,582 comparable organizations — drawn systematically from IRS Form 990 filings, not a hand-picked subset.

Compensation sits at approximately the 72nd percentile of comparable organizationswithin the typical range

Benchmarked executive: Sarah Swarthout — reported title “DIRECTOR OF TRAINING”, selected as the organization's highest-paid individual — no exact title match, so confirm this is a comparable role.

How comparable organizations were selected

2,582 organizations qualified on sector, size, and geography 2,000 within the band form the benchmarked peer set (closest by budget).

Distribution of comparable compensation

$47 total compensation of comparable organizations → $3,188,996 $163,268
$40,11010th
$80,13425th
$123,192Median
$170,67575th
$237,35990th
$163,268This org · 72nd
p10$40,110
p25$80,134
p50$123,192
p75$170,675
p90$237,359
$163,268

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
Alaska School Activities Assn Inc AK$2,595,860 Executive Di $132,865 $141,879 2024
Open Source Robotics Foundation Inc CA$2,596,521 Ceo $306,325 $295,443 2024
Bronx Community College NY$2,594,873 Chairperson, Part-year $88,014 $88,832 2024
American School Of Correspondence IL$2,594,758 President $114,107 $122,069 2025
Midtown-metro Achievement Centers IL$2,593,705 Executive Director Emeritus $107,450 $114,947 2025
🔒 1995 more comparable organizations — included in the purchased report

Comp (reported) is the figure on each organization's Form 990 (columns D + F); Comp (adjusted) normalizes it to WA cost of living and 2024 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 default72nd
Total compensation (D + F), as reported (no adjustments)77th
Reportable pay only (column D), adjusted78th
All sources (D + E + F), adjusted63rd

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:

Ready-to-adopt board minutes — executive compensation

🔒 The complete minutes language — three numbered resolutions pre-filled with this organization, the 2000-organization comparison, the date, and the percentile finding, ready to paste into your minutes — is included in the purchased report.

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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.