GuideStar: Nonprofit CEO Salaries Still Growing

The latest edition of a closely watched report in the nonprofit space finds salaries going up and the gender gap narrowing—though there’s still plenty of room for improvement on both fronts.

The 18th edition of the GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report  (opens in a new tab) [link to purchase], based on data reported by more than 112,000 nonprofits from the 2016 fiscal year, shows that median CEO salaries in nearly all categories increased in 2016. The year before had a slightly larger increase, noted GuideStar Director of Data Services Holly C.S. Ivel, the author of the new report.

“Nevertheless, 2016 was only the second year since the recession in which we saw increases of 4 percent or more,” she said in a news release  (opens in a new tab). “As has typically been the case, increases were higher at larger organizations.”

While the gender gap narrowed in 2016—and female CEOs generally saw higher increases in compensation than their male counterparts—it still remained prominent, especially at larger nonprofits. For nonprofits with budgets at or below $250,000, the gap was 4 percent; at those with budgets larger than $50 million, the gap was 20 percent.

Overall, more women led nonprofits in 2016 than in 2005—and the pay gap is narrower now than it was then, when it ranged from 17 percent to 25 percent.

Other notable findings from the report  (opens in a new tab) include information on positions that appear to gaining prominence in the nonprofit space (information technology and human resources roles are more likely among larger organizations) and distinctions among nonprofits in different fields (those in science and health, for example, tend to pay more than their counterparts in other sectors).

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