GW’s fundraising chief is the 18th highest paid fund raiser in higher education, but was beat out by several of his peers at GW’s top competitor schools.

Michael Morsberger was paid $491,816 in 2011 for meeting deep-pocketed donors and overseeing GW’s fundraising and alumni relations arms, according to GW’s 2012 tax filing. Chief fundraisers at five of the schools GW calls its peers, including New York, Tulane and Vanderbilt universities, the University of Southern California and Washington University in St. Louis, earned higher salaries that year, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education analysis.

Morsberger out-earned his contemporaries at Georgetown, Emory and Southern Methodist universities.

The top earner among the 14 schools GW says it competes with was Albert Checcio at the University of Southern California, who had a $722,317 salary in 2011. He ranked fourth on the total list.

Susan Feagin of Columbia University topped the list with a salary of $1,066,951 as the university’s former executive vice president of university development and alumni relations. She now works as a special advisor to the university’s president.

Since joining the University in 2010, Morsberger has guided the University towards a likely $1 billion fundraising campaign which will go public within the year. He also lead the division as it pulled in the two largest donations in GW history.

Last month, officials announced billionaire philanthropists Michael Milken and Sumner Redstone would donate a combined $80 million to GW’s public health school. In 2011, the University also received a $25 million donation for the GW Textile Museum.