On May 7, 2010, the IRS released the “Interim Report on Nonprofit Colleges and Universities Compliance Project.” Although the reported compensation numbers are very generic to be applied to specific institutions, other aspects of the report are quite interesting. We’ve summarized and excerpted the following:

 In large organizations, the highest paid employee (other than officers, directors, trustees or key employees – ODTKEs) was most often a sports coach (43% of organizations).

Very few colleges and universities reported that their coaches are not employees of the organization. The percentage of employees who received NCAA Athletic Income increased with organization size.

Only 55% of small, 71% of medium and 63% of large private colleges and universities reported using the Rebuttable Presumption Procedure (Intermediate Sanctions safe harbor) for any of the six highest paid. The others are not using the process.

The use of comparability data to establish compensation was present less frequently than the other rebuttable presumption factors (contemporaneous documentation and approval by an independent governing body)

We viewed perquisites and benefits reported for at least one of the highest six as typical for the sector

Detail on retirement showed relatively low levels of supplemental executive retirement, e.g. IRC 457(f) organization contributions were reported by 8% – 15% of organizations.