Benchmarks for the Nonprofit Sector
Compensation benchmarks for the nonprofit sector — from the CEO to the whole staff — built on IRS Form 990 filings and federal wage data, priced for organizations that can't justify a five-figure comp study.
The reasonableness question
Every nonprofit faces the same three moments: hiring an executive director, setting annual raises, and answering the board's reasonableness question at 990 time. The data to answer them exists — it's in hundreds of thousands of public filings and federal wage surveys — but organized answers have meant either a static national PDF that doesn't fit your budget size and region, or a consultant engagement that costs more than the raise you're benchmarking.
What you get
Enter role, budget size, state, and sector — get percentile benchmarks (25th / median / 75th) modeled from 610,000+ Schedule J compensation records across 110,000+ organizations, projected to today. Build §4958 comparables sets and export a board-ready PDF your compensation committee can rely on for the rebuttable presumption process.
Open Executive benchmarksBudget season, offer letters, pay-equity checks. 850+ roles from federal BLS wage data with a nonprofit / private-sector toggle, metro-level geography, and seniority tiers. Export to Excel and build your salary ranges in an afternoon.
Open Workforce benchmarksHow it works
Position, budget size, state or metro, sector.
Percentiles calibrated to organizations like yours — not a national average.
Excel and board-ready PDF exports, with the methodology documented on every page.
Why trust the numbers
IRS Form 990 Schedule J filings, BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics, the Employment Cost Index, and O*NET.
Estimates adjust for budget size, sector, geography, and filing-year drift — then project to the current year.
Every report links to the full model documentation. See the methodology →
For the compensation committee
The IRS's intermediate sanctions rules (IRC §4958) put personal excise-tax exposure on executives and the board members who approve their pay. The rebuttable presumption of reasonableness requires comparable data, independent review, and contemporaneous documentation. CauseComp Professional generates the comparables set and the documentation — the same work product a consultant would assemble — for about a tenth of the cost of a comp study.
CauseComp provides data and documentation tools, not legal advice. Organizations should consult counsel on §4958 process questions.
See it first
View a complete sample benchmark — a Chief Human Resources Officer at a $35M health-services organization — with the full percentile breakdown and report format. Then run your own numbers free: create an account (just an email) and get two workforce searches on us.
View the sample reportWhen you need a human
Complex packages, multi-entity organizations, board disputes, IRS inquiries — when the software isn't enough, book time with a compensation consultant with decades of executive comp experience. Subscribers get their subscription credited toward a full engagement.
Book a consultationQuestions
Executive benchmarks: IRS Form 990 Schedule J filings — the audited comp disclosures nonprofits file every year. Workforce benchmarks: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage surveys (OEWS, ECI, ECEC) and O*NET. Estimates are modeled to your budget size, sector, and location and projected to the current year.
For many organizations, yes — the data and documentation are the same foundation a consultant would use. For complex situations, we'll tell you honestly when you need one, and you can book directly through the site.
The underlying filings and surveys refresh on their federal publication cycles; our model projects them to today using the BLS Employment Cost Index and current job-posting signals. Every report shows its data vintage.
Yes — that's what the Professional tier's comparables sets and board-ready PDFs are designed for. (Data and documentation tools, not legal advice.)
Maybe not. The one-time Board Report ($349) covers a single position with a board-ready PDF — no subscription. If you later upgrade to Professional within 90 days, the $349 is credited.
An RB Consulting Services product.