The income table lists every way a donor earns money — salary, fund compensation, IPO and acquisition proceeds, profit share, performance earnings, and inheritance. This article explains each income type and how to read its charts.
The Income table on a donor's profile lists every way they earn money — a salary, a share of a fund's profits, the cash from selling a company, and more. Every figure is a range; How DonorAtlas estimates wealth explains why. We'll go through each income type and how to read its charts.
The walk below opens right at the Income table on Eric Schmidt's profile — see where it lives, then read on for each income type:
Salary is pay for a job — wages, bonus, and stock — that arrives year after year. Expand the row for the Estimated Compensation History chart: a band tracing pay across the career, with the width showing the low-to-high estimate for each year. Hover any point to see the estimated pay and the role behind it.
Principals at private-equity, venture, and hedge funds are paid through their funds, in three streams: a base salary, management fees (a yearly fee for running the money, usually around 2% of what the fund manages), and carry (a share of the fund's profits, typically around 20% of the gains). Carry is usually the biggest of the three by far.
Expand the Fund row for a money-flow diagram that splits the pay into those streams, with the named funds feeding the carry. Open the breakdown below it to see salary, carry, and fees year by year.
Timing matters more than totals. A fund partner whose flagship fund is 6–10 years past its vintage is likely in their peak distribution years, and the 12–24 months after an IPO or acquisition are when a donor's capacity is at its peak — often the best windows for a major ask.
Realized rows are one-time cash-outs, not recurring income: an IPO (the company going public, which lets insiders finally sell) or an acquisition (the company being bought, which converts their shares to cash). Expand an IPO row for the offering details, the SEC filings behind it, and a chart of the cash coming off the table as the insider sells. An acquisition row shows the deal terms and the person's estimated share of the proceeds.
After an exit, the donor has new cash on hand — often a good time for a major ask.
Partners at law, accounting, and medical practices — and owners of private businesses — aren't paid mainly through a salary. They take a share of the firm's profits, sized by their ownership stake. We estimate that stake and benchmark the firm's per-partner profits to produce the Profit Share row.
Expand the row to see the firm, the person's estimated ownership percentage, and how their share has grown since they joined.
Performance rows cover athletes and entertainers. Playing contracts in the major leagues are public, and endorsement income can be estimated from reported deals, so these careers are well documented. The row shows an average annual figure; expand it for the career span, the sources of the money, and a total career-earnings estimate.
For a retired athlete, size the ask against that career total rather than a current salary.
Inheritance rows separate money already received from money that may come later. Realized inheritance counts toward current net worth like any other income. Anticipated inheritance is our estimate of what may come later: we size the family's wealth, divide by the number of likely inheritors, and subtract any known commitments, like a pledge to a foundation.
Anticipated amounts don't count toward current net worth, since the money hasn't arrived yet. For planning, though, they're a useful signal of where a donor's capacity is headed.
Below is the real income table, exactly as it appears on a profile, loaded with sample rows covering every income type above. Click any row to expand it:
Type | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
Realized | Lumastra Inc. | $32M$30M–33M |
EarningsPerformance | Professional basketball career | $8.3M/yr$7M–9.5M/yr |
Fund | Crestline Capital Partners | $5.7M/yr$4.2M–7.1M/yr |
One thing to know when reading the Value column: ongoing income shows with a /yr suffix, while one-time events like an IPO or an inheritance show as a single total.
Next up: assets — the other half of wealth, covering everything a donor already owns and how each piece is valued.