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...

Private foundations choose distribution policies that involve trade-offs between current and future distributions. Our study investigates the willingness of private foundations to increase current distributions to qualify for a reduced excise tax rate on net investment income. We provide...