You accurately describe the trends, but I'm not sure those are positive trends. If these CEOs of nonprofits were indeed purely sales agents receiving commission

You accurately describe the trends, but I'm not sure those are positive trends. If these CEOs of nonprofits were indeed purely sales agents receiving commissions, fine, it's a rational ROI to employ them in a role like Vice President of Donor Relations. But they happen to also be the CEO, formally in charge of the whole operation, and further tend to set the tone for that operation. Then you have the fundraising tail wagging the mission dog. As a result, some nonprofits (and universities) start to look more like weird corporations that exist to perpetuate themselves and their top staff, with some kind of mumbo jumbo relating to public service being an official goal but nowhere near the top of the priority list. An organization that exists primarily to perpetuate itself and pay its staff well is perfectly fine, but then it doesn't really have any business claiming to be a charity...