2025 Nonprofit Compensation Report: Where do we stand?

Candid’s 2025 Nonprofit Compensation Report provides salaries and benefits data for 14 executive positions—CEO/executive director and top administrative, business, development, education, facilities, financial, and HR jobs—from the 2023 IRS filings of more than 130,000 tax-exempt organizations (excluding private foundations). How can this data help you improve your own organization or advance your career? Based on what we’ve heard, here are the main use cases:  

For nonprofit CEOs: Attract and retain top talent with competitive compensation 

The 2025 Nonprofit Compensation Report provides benchmarks for each position: average, median, and 25th- and 75th-percentile compensation levels for nonprofits by region, issue area, and budget bracket. By comparing your nonprofit with peer organizations, you can ensure you’re offering competitive and fair compensation.  

For example, the CEO of a youth development organization in Boston with a budget between $2.5 million and $5 million who’s recruiting a development director could look up compensation levels for top development jobs at arts groups in her city. Knowing the median and the 75th percentile salaries, she can make sure to offer a competitive package. 

The CEO of a small workforce development board that primarily received federal funding through the state agency told us he used the report to recommend raises. “What I care about is learning that I have a fair competitive salary,” he said. “We should be able to pay enough to keep good people, but I only have a budget of $2.5 million. My fear is that I won’t get the best candidates and I’m afraid that they’ll bounce after I train them.” 

For consultants and nonprofit boards: Stay aligned with the latest standards and conduct due diligence 

Keeping up: Nonprofits often turn to HR consultants to set salary ranges, in part because IRS “Safe Harbor” criteria require that external individuals with no conflict of interest set them based on reliable and “appropriate data for comparability.” The 2025 Nonprofit Compensation Report’s comprehensive data enables consultants to advise organizations of varying sizes, in different locations, on multiple executive positions. A consultant who’s advised on CEO succession since the 1990s said he used the report to suggest salary ranges based on comparable organizations or positions in the area. 

Compliance: We’ve also heard organizations obtain the report to back up their compensation levels with data in case they’re audited for compliance. They’ll be able to point to this source of “appropriate data for comparability” to show its salaries are within the range for similar organizations. “It’s all about reasonable compensation,” the consultant said. “Good boards are paying attention to compliance. I aim for median to 75% compensation.” 

Accountability: Nonprofits committed to advancing a fair and equitable society will want to show that commitment in their compensation practices as well. They can use the report to hold themselves accountable—“putting their money where their mouth is” by ensuring they’re paying fair and equitable salaries, not contributing to the gender pay gap or other disparities. 

For nonprofit professionals: Advocate for fair compensation 

A small Las Vegas affiliate of a national nonprofit used the report to propose salary ranges for new positions; the national organization’s cost of living calculations did not reflect the local reality. “We need to pay staff a living wage. That’s one of the main reasons that we got the report,” the new COO explained. “We were not compensated at levels that you would expect. Our new leader wants to correct that.” This COO also noted that the report helps “back up conversations about higher wages for everyone. The report only shows higher level positions, but it helps us figure out the lower positions as well.” 

We also hear some individuals find the range for similar organizations in the report, then check specific peer organizations’ Forms 990 on their Candid profiles to see what they pay. Being able to say, “We’re at the bottom our range, and XYZ nonprofit—which our board is always comparing us to—is at the top” makes a stronger case for fair compensation. 

For researchers and journalists: Understand patterns and trends on nonprofit compensation 

The report also offers a multitude of data slices, which can be helpful for those investigating a specific trend or phenomenon.  For example, the report’s executive summary provides a snapshot of trends when it comes to nonprofit executive compensation—from changes in median compensation over time, to variations by issue area, to the historical patterns of the gender pay gap. This offers both researchers and journalists a broad and in-depth view of what nonprofit executives earn—which can help raise public awareness of disparities and address misperceptions. 

For example, this year’s data shows median CEO compensation rose from $97,000 in 2019 to $110,000 in 2023—a modest increase over five years. Meanwhile, the gender pay gap for CEOs has been slowly narrowing—women are paid 73 cents for each dollar a man earns, up from 69 cents in 2013. Yet, at organizations with budgets of over $50 million, the gap has widened, from 82 cents to the dollar to 75 cents. 

Learn more about the 2025 Nonprofit Compensation Report and check out a sample report.