Advisory board pay: what advisors get paid in cash and equity, and how to ask

Advisory board pay depends on what kind of board it is: startup advisors are usually paid a small equity grant and no cash, advisory board members at established private companies are paid about 60% to 75% of what directors on real boards of directors get, according to the 2024 Private Company Board Compensation Survey, and scientific advisory boards at public biotech companies pay per meeting. So the answer to "how much do advisors get paid" starts with a question back: which board, at what kind of organization? This post gives the published numbers for each kind, then shows how to choose between a per-meeting fee and a retainer and how to ask.

Two existing posts cover the startup case in depth: startup advisor compensation for grant sizes and vesting, and advisory shares for the tax mechanics of the equity. This post covers the cash side and the other kinds of advisory board.

1. Find out which of four kinds of advisory board you are joining

Each kind pays differently, so name it before you talk about money.

None of these is a seat on the board of directors. An advisor advises and has no vote. If you are weighing a directorship, the pay is different and so are the legal duties: see how to become a board member and, for the UK, non-executive director pay.

2. At a startup, expect equity, and ask for cash only for project work

The FAST template sets a startup advisor's grant by company stage and workload, from 0.50% at pre-seed for "Standard: Monthly Meetings" to 1.00% for an expert-level advisor who also brings contacts and projects, falling to 0.10% and 0.50% at Series A (FAST). The Founder Institute says advisors are "normally compensated with equity," and that a 5% pool of a technology startup's equity for a group of advisors or an advisory board is "not uncommon."

Read that 5% as the whole room's share. If eight people sit on the advisory board, your slice is small. The startup advisor compensation post compares FAST with what companies actually grant, which is lower.

Ask for cash when the job is a project. The FAST page says the agreement "is not designed for traditional project consulting and 'work for hire' relationships." If the founders want you to write the pricing model or run a pilot, quote that as consulting, separately from the advisory grant.

3. At an established private company, expect cash at roughly two thirds of director pay

Private companies with real revenue pay their advisory boards in cash, and the best published numbers come from the annual survey by Compensation Advisory Partners with Private Company Director and Family Business magazines. In the 2024 edition, 71% of respondents had fiduciary boards (real boards of directors) and the rest had advisory boards. It says "compensation for advisory board members ranges from 60% to 75% of the compensation for directors on fiduciary boards," and that advisory service carries less risk and fewer legal obligations.

The survey's headline pay figures cover all respondents, so they mix both kinds of board, and most respondents (71% in 2024) have fiduciary boards. Read them as mostly director pay:

The survey does not say which part of pay its 60% to 75% ratio applies to, and it does not publish separate advisory board medians, so do not multiply the table by the ratio and treat the result as a market rate. Use the table to show that the company's peers pay their boards in cash, and the ratio to explain why your number sits below director pay. Fees rise with company size, and a small family business may pay far less.

Short version: if an established private company asks you onto its advisory board for no cash, point to the survey's ratio and ask for a cash fee priced below director pay.

4. On a scientific advisory board, expect a per-meeting fee, and read the proxy

Public life sciences companies disclose some of what they pay for scientific advisory board (SAB) meetings in their proxy statements, the annual filings that describe director pay. The cleanest examples cover directors who also attend SAB meetings, because proxies have to report what each director is paid, while outside advisors rarely appear by name.

• Bicycle Therapeutics' 2025 proxy says a non-executive director who sits on the Scientific Advisory Board and attends its meetings "will be entitled to receive a cash fee of $4,000 per meeting" (Bicycle Therapeutics proxy).
• Allogene Therapeutics' 2026 proxy describes its 2025 director pay policy as including "$5,000 per annual Scientific Advisory Board meeting attended by a member of the Research and Development Committee" (Allogene proxy).
• NextCure's 2025 proxy describes a former executive's "Scientific Advisory and Consulting Agreement" under which, instead of cash, he keeps vesting in his existing equity awards while he consults and serves on the SAB (NextCure proxy).
• Outside life sciences and at the very small end, Xeriant's 2026 annual report describes a 2021 agreement with one member of its advisory board: 100,000 common shares, "$2,500 per meeting paid in cash, common shares, or a combination," a $25,000 bonus in shares at the end of each year of service, and options on 5,000,000 shares at $0.12 vesting over two years (Xeriant 10-K). That is a small company paying largely in its own stock, which is worth only what the stock is worth.

So $4,000 to $5,000 a meeting is what two listed biotechs pay their own directors for attending SAB meetings. Outside scientists on the same boards may be paid differently, and these filings do not show what they get, so treat the range as a reference point for your ask rather than the going rate. Before you join an SAB at a listed company, search its filings on EDGAR, the SEC's public filing database, for "Scientific Advisory Board" and read what it pays the people it has to disclose.

5. Choose a retainer when the work happens between meetings

Ask for a per-meeting fee when the job is the meetings. Ask for a retainer when the company will also call you between them. Companies are moving toward retainers: the 2025 survey says only 15% of respondents pay meeting fees alone, a share that is "diminishing each year," and the median cash retainer rose 21% as companies switched (2025 survey).

Here is a made-up example. Owen spent 20 years running cold-chain logistics for a frozen food maker and can tell you, unprompted, the exact temperature at which ice cream starts to look sad. A regional food distributor asks him onto a five-person advisory board with four meetings a year.

• At the survey's 2025 median meeting fee of $2,500, four meetings pay $10,000.
• Each meeting takes him about six hours with reading and travel, so 24 hours a year, about $417 an hour.
• But the CEO also wants a call "whenever something comes up." If that adds two hours a month, Owen's year is 48 hours and the per-meeting deal drops to about $208 an hour.

Owen should ask for a retainer of $20,000, which covers the meetings and the calls and keeps him near $417 an hour. Put the expected hours in the agreement so the retainer has a ceiling. The tradeoff: a retainer pays the same in a quiet year, so the company may cut it when budgets tighten, while a meeting fee only stops when the meetings do.

6. On a nonprofit advisory board, expect to volunteer, and ask for expenses

Expect a nonprofit advisory seat to be unpaid. Charities run on donated money, and the tax rules make paying insiders a careful exercise. The IRS's governance guidance for charities says "a charity may not pay more than reasonable compensation for services rendered," that pay for directors, trustees and others with substantial influence should be set by people with no financial interest in it, and that Form 990 reports compensation for certain officers, directors, trustees and key employees.

So take a nonprofit advisory seat for the mission and the board experience, and ask only for travel and expenses. If the organization wants you for a defined project, such as an audit of its fundraising database, that is consulting and can be paid separately, approved by people with no stake in it. The how to become a board member post explains how a nonprofit seat can lead to a paid directorship.

7. Ask with a written proposal that names the work, the hours and the number

Write a one-page proposal before the money conversation, because it turns a vague ask into a price for defined work. Include:

1. What you will do: meetings a year, calls between them, introductions, reviews.
2. The hours you expect, per month or per year.
3. The pay structure you want (equity, a meeting fee or a retainer) and the number, with the public figure it is based on.
4. How either side can end it, and what happens to unvested equity if they do.
5. Confirmation that your employer allows it, if you have one.

Anchor the number on a published figure and say so: "The 2025 private company survey puts the median meeting fee at $2,500, so I'm proposing $2,500 a meeting." A sourced number moves the talk from what you want to what is normal. If the founder or CEO says the company pays in equity only, ask for fewer hours rather than a lower number. The how to become a board advisor post covers how to earn the offer in the first place.

Check your employer's rules first. An advisory seat at a company that sells to your employer, or competes with it, is the kind of outside work employer policies often cover; the moonlighting policy post covers what to look for.

8. Treat cash fees as self-employment income

Cash advisory fees from a US company are usually nonemployee compensation. A company that pays you $2,000 or more in a year reports it on Form 1099-NEC for tax years beginning after 2025, according to the IRS instructions. You also owe self-employment tax of 15.3% once net earnings from self-employment reach $400 for the year (IRS).

Equity is taxed on a different clock, and the advisory shares post explains the 83(b) election and option exercise. For quarterly payments and records, see 1099 consulting income taxes, and for billing the fees, the consulting invoice template. This is general information, so check your own case with an accountant.

Where Instant Expert fits

A paid call is a quick way to find out whether a company is worth a year on its advisory board, and whether its leaders listen. On Instant Expert, a buyer invites you to a specific paid call or a written or voice answer and sets the amount up front. You receive the full amount offered, and you can reply with a higher price. You can claim your profile or see open paid requests on the request board.

Before your next advisory conversation, write the one-page proposal from section 7 and put a sourced number in it.