Nonprofit Salary Surveys: Which Exist, What They Cost, and the IRS Rule

A nonprofit salary survey is a report that tells you what similar organizations pay for the same jobs. Most worthwhile ones are published by state nonprofit associations, cost from about $20 to $500, and are cheaper if you take part or join. National reports exist for executives, fundraisers and foundation staff. For setting the executive director’s pay, a survey is also how a board meets the IRS’s rules on reasonable compensation, and small charities can meet them with free data from three comparable organizations. We read each publisher’s page, the IRS’s guidance and the regulation on 10 November 2026.

The surveys that exist

Prices are from each publisher’s own page and are in US dollars; member and participant prices are usually much lower than the full price. The National Council of Nonprofits does not publish its own survey but notes that “Many state associations of nonprofits collect salary and benefit information via regular surveys”, and that national reports are available from Candid, The NonProfit Times and Columbia Books. If your state’s association runs one, start there: it will have the right geography, and members often get it free or nearly so.

The national reports

Candid’s Nonprofit Compensation Report is built from Form 990 filings rather than a voluntary survey, covering nearly 120,000 organizations and 14 executive positions. Its page shows no price; Candid publishes a free sample and summary findings. It is the broadest source for executive pay, but because it comes from tax returns it lags by a year or two.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals publishes a compensation and benefits study of fundraising staff, based on “responses from nearly 2,700 AFP members”. It reports a US median fundraising salary of $85,000, and “Non-AFP members may purchase the report for $399.” It is the one to use when hiring a development director, and turnover in those roles is covered in our fundraiser turnover guide.

The Council on Foundations covers foundation staff in its Grantmaker Salary and Benefits report, with data from 1,052 grantmakers and 13,362 staff, free to members and $649 to others.

The state reports

State association surveys break pay down by budget size, mission and region, which is exactly what the IRS’s comparability rules ask for. Minnesota’s covers nearly 80 positions every two years as an online dashboard: free to participating members, $125 to other members and $500 to nonmembers. Colorado’s draws on 440 organizations and more than 80 positions; it costs members $150 and nonmembers $300, “Participants receive a 50% discount”, and access “cannot be shared across multiple users.” Maryland’s is free to members. Maine’s is a joint Northern New England report with New Hampshire and Vermont, and Michigan’s covers more than 100 job titles. In Northern California, Nonprofit Compensation Associates prices its report by the buyer’s budget.

The cheapest way to get a state survey is almost always to take part. Participation usually takes an hour or two of HR data entry and cuts the price by half or more, and the more organizations take part, the better the data for everyone.

Free sources of pay data

Form 990s. Every larger nonprofit’s tax return lists pay for officers and its highest-paid staff. The Form 990 instructions require Part VII to list the five highest compensated employees paid over $100,000, and Schedule J for anyone over $150,000. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer lets you search them free by state and type; our guide to finding a Form 990 explains how. The limits: only well-paid staff appear, and the data is a year or two old.

Government data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ occupational wage survey is free and detailed by job, but its FAQ says it publishes “estimates by industry and public/private ownership type at the national level only”, with no nonprofit category, so it cannot tell you what charities pay. BLS does publish research data on 501(c)(3) employment and wages, from 2007 to 2022, at sector level, and a 2024 Monthly Labor Review article found that “controlling for worker skills reveals that nonprofit workers earn less than for-profit or public sector workers.” Our own analysis of what charities spend per employee is in nonprofit salaries.

Using a survey to set executive pay

The IRS can impose excise taxes on excessive pay to insiders such as an executive director. A board that follows three steps gets a “rebuttable presumption” that the pay is reasonable, which shifts the burden to the IRS. The IRS’s rebuttable presumption page lists them.

The regulation, 26 CFR 53.4958-6, says what counts as good data. Its first example describes a board that relied on a national survey with no breakdown by type, size or location, and concludes the decision “was not based upon appropriate data as to comparability.” Its second example, a survey segmented by size and region, passes. That is the case for a state survey broken down by budget, over a national average.

Small charities have a simpler route. For organizations with gross receipts under $1 million, the regulation says the board “will be considered to have appropriate data as to comparability if it has data on compensation paid by three comparable organizations” in the same or similar communities for similar services. Three Form 990s from similar local charities, found free on ProPublica, are enough. Form 990 itself asks, in Part VI, whether the organization used comparability data to set the chief executive’s pay.

Record it properly. The regulation requires records to be prepared before the later of the next board meeting or 60 days after the decision. Use our board minutes and board resolution templates, note which data you used, and have the executive leave the room under your conflict of interest policy.

A worked example

Take a charity with an $800,000 budget setting its executive director’s salary. Because its gross receipts are under $1 million, the board pulls the Form 990s of three local charities of similar size and mission from ProPublica and notes what each paid its chief executive. It adds the state association’s survey, bought for $125 as a member, to see pay by budget band. The compensation committee, without the director present, approves a salary within the range, and the minutes record the three comparables, the survey and the vote. The whole process costs $125 and an hour of committee time, and it gives the board the IRS’s presumption of reasonableness.

What a survey cannot tell you

A survey gives a range, not an answer. It reports what similar organizations paid, usually a year or more ago, and it cannot weigh the things that make one role different: a director who also runs the finances, a program manager with a clinical licence, or a local labor market that has moved since the data was collected. Use the median and the spread as the starting point, then decide where in the range your role sits and write down why.

Pay is also more than salary. Most state surveys report benefits, such as health insurance contributions, retirement matches and paid leave, and comparing salary alone can understate what larger organizations offer. If you cannot match a salary, a stronger benefits package or flexible working may close the gap. Whatever you decide, make it part of a written compensation policy, alongside your other nonprofit policies, so the next decision follows the same process.

Choosing a survey

Match the survey to the decision. For the executive, use a state survey broken down by budget, plus 990s or Candid. For fundraising roles, AFP. For a foundation, the Council on Foundations. For ordinary staff roles, your state association’s survey is usually the only source that covers them in detail. Check the edition year, since most state surveys run every two years, and the sample size in your budget band. Our guides to the board of directors and executive director or CEO titles cover the governance side, and nonprofit jobs covers hiring.

Some sources are no longer current. NTEN’s technology staffing survey was replaced in 2020 by a different report, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s executive pay surveys are archived. Use current editions, and budget for the next one in your budget when it falls due.

This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.