As this chart reveals, the likelihood of changes in state laws are significantly higher than changes at the federal level. America’s 1.3 million charitable nonprofits feed, heal, shelter, educate, nurture, and inspire people of every age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, from coast to coast, border to border, and beyond. With development staff and leadership working closely together, choose a limited number of strategies to experiment with initially, and give them time to work. Some things literally take years to pay off – but when they do, they can pay off big. There are also external factors to consider, such as local competition for donor dollars, recessions, or the decline in donations we’re currently seeing across the nonprofit sector.
Find A Nonprofit Job: Job Search Sites To Use In 2023
You can search for job titles and related salaries in any geographic area free of charge. You can also browse the nonprofit job category at Glassdoor for a frame of reference. Successful nonprofits learn to manage a mix of volunteer and paid staff to accomplish their missions and serve their communities. However, it’s not an easy task to determine a pay level that attracts qualified candidates while not spending precious funds on overpaying salaries. While I’ve shared industry norms as benchmarks for each of the previous nonprofit ratios in this series, this particular ratio does not accounting services for nonprofit organizations carry such an obvious or widely recognized industry norm.
- In these situations, the board has decided they want one executive to carry out the day-to-day work of the organization but don’t have the funds to compensate adequately.
- A nonprofit line of credit is a great resource tool for nonprofit financing.
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- What’s important to keep in mind is that portions of your staff’s salaries can probably be allocated to program expenses.
- High turnover among fundraisers was a problem even before this era of burnout and workforce shortages in the nonprofit sector.
- The mean salary nationally for women executives of nonprofits with budgets between $5 and $10 million was $82,314.
- Of course, in this example, this organization would’ve had a much lower personnel expense ratio than many other nonprofits.
How Much Should a Nonprofit Pay Its Staff?
- Smart nonprofit leaders always have a cash backup plan in the form of a line of credit to cater to emergencies or take advantage of opportunities while they wait for government grants or reimbursement.
- There’s a common misconception that all nonprofit workers are volunteers; hence, little attention is given to employees’ salaries.
- It’s critically important to keep your development staff in place for more than the 18-month sector average.
- Cash flow ensures your organization can meet its obligations month-to-month.
- If your nonprofit has a broad base of small donor support, is your strategy to find new donors through marketing campaigns, or to connect with major donors in your community through events, personal calls, or meetings?
- So please don’t interpret a low ratio as a need to go spend 30% of your budget on personnel!
In a national study of nonprofit executive directors, most were reasonably satisfied with their compensation, despite salaries often between $40,000 and $60,000 in some of the country’s most expensive urban areas. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is “very satisfied”), respondents’ average rating of satisfaction with pay was 3.47, although a substantial portion—27%–rated their compensation packages a 1 or 2. It is also noteworthy that 6% of executive directors receive no salary at all—they’re volunteers.
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The average minimum salary across all states is $25,544 and the average maximum is $108,885. The majority of nonprofit positions in the United States pay between $36,936 and $52,627. The state with the highest average is Washington at $57,182 and the lowest is North Carolina at $43,119. Working in the nonprofit sector often requires balancing passion for the cause with the need for fair compensation.
- Let’s explore the nonprofit budget and some of the most common metrics, the widely accepted targets, and where the wiggle room is.
- Overall wages have not kept up with the rising cost of goods and services.
- Notwithstanding, well-informed nonprofit executives and directors have learned to leverage a nonprofit line of credit to pay employees on a rainy day, especially when donations and reimbursement are delayed.
- There are also external factors to consider, such as local competition for donor dollars, recessions, or the decline in donations we’re currently seeing across the nonprofit sector.
- She used data from her peers in Metro Detroit to determine if her pay was aligned with the sector and region.
Adapting to the AI Revolution: Future-Proofing Your Skills in Grant Writing
An operating, or operational, budget outlines the funds you need to make your business run efficiently and successfully during a period. It consists of all revenues and expenses your company expects to use for its operations. So many new nonprofits rely on https://nerdbot.com/2025/06/10/the-key-benefits-of-accounting-services-for-nonprofit-organizations/ small, sporadic individual donations and fundraising events (that could get canceled at any time due to health concerns). This page does not attempt to cover all these issues, but rather to validate how important it is to compensate employees fairly and debunk the myth that “nonprofits only have volunteers.”
Additional Resources
This allowed us to produce the most complete analysis of fiscal year 2021 and illuminate the continued impact that 2020 had on the sector. Drawn exclusively from data reported on IRS Forms 990 and 990-EZ, our annual report provides in-depth information and insights on executive compensation from over 123,000 tax-exempt organizations for fiscal year 2021. Candid’s team also added 21 new metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) to the report this year to allow for greater geographic comparisons.
As with a small business startup, it takes time to pay off the initial investment and begin generating a “profit,” or net revenue beyond the ongoing expenses. Use Candid’s free dashboards to learn how billions in grant dollars flow in the U.S., and compare foundation funding by state with data on foundation grants given and received by nonprofits in each state. According to tax returns, ASPCA CEO Matthew Bershadker received $852,231 in 2019 and the ASPCA had over $20 million in offshore accounts! According to a Charity Navigator study, the average nonprofit CEO’s pay is $123,000. This means Bershadker’s pay is more than 6 times the average nonprofit CEO. Compliance and nonprofit executive compensation benchmarking made easy.