Compare · CauseComp vs. ERI
CauseComp vs. ERI: which fits your organization?
ERI Economic Research Institute has been researching compensation for over 35 years, and its Nonprofit Comparables Assessor is a fixture in the toolkits of compensation consultants and attorneys who build §4958 reasonableness opinions for a living. CauseComp works from the same class of IRS data with a different design goal: a self-serve platform a nonprofit's own board or HR team can use directly — with published pricing, benchmarks modeled to your organization and projected to the current year, and staff-level salary data included in the same subscription.
The short version: ERI built a professional-grade instrument, priced by custom quote, that rewards a practiced operator. CauseComp built the answer layer — for organizations that need defensible numbers without hiring the operator.
What does each product cover?
ERI's Nonprofit Comparables Assessor covers 55 executive positions across 600 industry sectors, built from IRS Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF. Its workflow is peer-group construction: you search, rank, and sort comparable organizations by subsector, geography, date, and size, build the peer set yourself — including for-profit comparables, which §4958 regulations permit — and calculate ranges and percentiles from it, with access to the underlying source filings. Staff-level benchmarking lives elsewhere in ERI's product family (the Assessor platform's employer-reported survey data), as a separate component of a quoted package.
CauseComp covers 100+ named executive roles modeled from 610,000+ Schedule J records across 110,000+ organizations, and includes the Workforce product — 850+ staff roles across ~390 metros from BLS data with a nonprofit/private-sector toggle — in the same subscription. The model does the calibration step for you: enter budget size, sector, and location, and get percentiles for your situation, plus a §4958 comparables set and board-ready PDF.
How current is the data?
Both products are honest about their sources; the difference is what happens after. ERI serves the most recent publicly available filings — and 990 data is always 18–30 months old by the time it's public, so peer-set percentiles reflect the market of one to two years ago. CauseComp models the same class of filings and projects them to the current year using the BLS Employment Cost Index and current job-posting signals, with the data vintage shown on every benchmark. When the committee asks what's reasonable today, the projection answers that question directly.
What does each cost?
ERI does not publish pricing. The Nonprofit Comparables Assessor is sold as part of ERI's Assessor platform or as an add-on to a quoted package — pricing requires contacting sales, and packages are scoped to the buyer. That model fits its core audience: consultants and enterprise HR teams licensing a professional toolset.
CauseComp publishes its prices: a one-time Board Report at $349 (one position, board-ready PDF with comparables set — credited toward Professional within 90 days), Essential at $588/yr (workforce benchmarking), and Professional at $996/yr covering unlimited benchmarks, §4958 comparables sets, and board-ready PDFs for every role — executive and staff.
Comparison at a glance
| CauseComp | ERI | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Nonprofit boards, EDs, and HR — self-serve | Comp professionals and consultants — full toolset |
| Executive coverage | 100+ named roles, modeled to budget, sector, geography | 55 positions, 600 industry sectors |
| Workflow | Enter your parameters → calibrated percentiles | Build your own peer group → calculate from it |
| Staff/workforce benchmarks | Included — 850+ roles, ~390 metros (BLS) | Separate platform component (quoted) |
| Data currency | Projected to current year (ECI + posting signals), vintage shown | Most recent publicly available filings (unadjusted) |
| Source-document access | No — modeled benchmarks with methodology in the open | Yes — view underlying 990 filings |
| For-profit comparables | No — nonprofit and BLS data | Yes — mix for-profit peers into the set |
| Pricing | Published: $349 one-time or $996/yr unlimited | Custom quote — contact sales |
| Escalation to a consultant | Yes — built by RB Consulting Services | ERI offers consulting services |
When is ERI the right choice?
Honestly: if you're a compensation consultant or attorney producing reasonableness opinions across many clients, ERI's instrument is built for you — hand-constructed peer groups, source-document access for the workpaper file, for-profit comparables where the regulations permit them, and 35+ years of institutional credibility. Large organizations that already license ERI's Assessor platform for general HR benchmarking may find the nonprofit add-on the path of least resistance. And since the reasonableness process should rest on multiple independent sources, an ERI peer study and a CauseComp benchmark can sit side by side in the same board packet.
When is CauseComp the right choice?
Choose CauseComp when the organization itself is doing the work: when the board or HR team wants defensible numbers without learning a professional instrument or engaging the person who operates one, when you want to know the price before a sales call, when the benchmark should reflect today's market rather than the newest available filings, and when the same subscription needs to answer staff-salary questions too. And if the situation turns complex — an IRS inquiry, a multi-entity structure — there's a licensed path to an actual compensation consultant behind the product.
Start with CauseComp
Benchmark your whole org — executive and staff — with current-year projections, published pricing, and board-ready documentation. One-time Board Report from $349, or Professional at $996/yr.
Use both
The reasonableness process rests on multiple independent sources. An ERI-based peer study and CauseComp's current-year model make a defensible pair.
Frequently asked questions
Do CauseComp and ERI use the same data?
Both build from nonprofit IRS filings. ERI's Nonprofit Comparables Assessor draws on Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF and serves the filings as reported; CauseComp models 610,000+ Schedule J records across 110,000+ organizations and projects them to the current year. CauseComp's Workforce product adds BLS OEWS/ECEC staff-level data in the same subscription; ERI covers staff roles through its separate survey-based Assessor products.
Which one satisfies the IRS §4958 comparability-data requirement?
Either can serve as comparability data; neither grants the rebuttable presumption by itself. The presumption requires advance approval by an independent board body, appropriate comparability data, and contemporaneous documentation. Both products position themselves for this use, and many advisors recommend multiple independent sources.
Why doesn't ERI publish prices?
ERI sells custom-scoped packages through its sales team — a model common in enterprise HR software (verify current terms at erieri.com). CauseComp publishes flat pricing because its buyers — boards and small HR teams — typically need to budget the expense before a purchase, not negotiate one.
ERI lets you see the source filings. Why doesn't CauseComp?
Different designs. ERI's workflow is assembling your own peer group, so it shows the underlying documents. CauseComp is a model: it's calibrated on the full corpus and documents its methodology in the open, and the §4958 comparables set in the Professional tier lists the comparable organizations supporting your benchmark.
Neither of these is legal advice, right?
Correct. Both products provide data to support board deliberations. Organizations should consult counsel on §4958 process questions.
See where you land. View a sample benchmark, compare the tiers, or talk it through — even if the right answer is a professional toolset and not a subscription.
ERI facts current as of July 2026, from erieri.com/nonprofitcomparablesassessor and erieri.com/pricing; verify current features and pricing at erieri.com before relying on this page. CauseComp provides data and documentation to support board deliberations — not legal advice. Not affiliated with ERI Economic Research Institute. “Nonprofit Comparables Assessor” is a trademark of ERI Economic Research Institute, Inc.