We investigate the relationship between private foundation performance and managerial pay. Private foundations are an unusual organizational form in that after the death of the founder, there are no donors or other external constituencies with the power and incentives to discipline management....

In a large sample of US private foundations, we examine the association between CEO compensation and an accounting-based measure of performance, administrative efficiency. We document a positive pay-performance association across time within foundations, but a negative association across...

Founders make significant financial contributions in creating US private foundations. Therefore, we hypothesize that founders monitor foundation operations and predict a positive relation between founder participation and foundation efficiency. In contrast, we propose competing hypotheses in...