Methodology

How CauseComp builds its benchmarks

CauseComp runs two independent, data-driven engines from authoritative public sources — one for executive pay, one for the broader workforce. Both report a full percentile range (25th / 50th / 75th), so you see the market spread, not just a single number.

Executive Compensation 990 · LightGBM

Data source

Officer, director, trustee, and key-employee pay reported on IRS Form 990, Schedule J — the public filings U.S. nonprofits submit annually. This is real, disclosed compensation, not survey self-report.

Model

• LightGBM gradient-boosted quantile regression estimates the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles of total compensation for a given role and organization profile.
• Inputs: role, NTEE sector, organization revenue, state (or metro), organization type (501(c)(3), (c)(4), …), and optional total assets / multi-entity system signals.
• Registered users also see the compensation broken into components — base, bonus/incentive, benefits, and other reportable pay.

§4958 comparables

For board documentation, CauseComp surfaces the actual comparable organizations behind a benchmark — the specific public 990 filings — supporting the IRS §4958 rebuttable presumption of reasonableness for setting executive pay.

Broad-Based & Workforce BLS OEWS · O*NET

Data source

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program — the official national wage survey — covering 850+ roles mapped to standard SOC occupation codes, using the most recent BLS OEWS release.

Calibration chain

• Starts from the official national median for the occupation, then layers geographic (state and metro-level, ~390 MSAs) and industry (NAICS) adjustments.
• Wages are aged to the current period using the BLS Employment Cost Index (ECI).
• Incentive and benefits loads are derived from BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) and O*NET composite scalars, producing total-cash and total-compensation figures.
• A Nonprofit / Private-sector toggle switches the reference population and industry mix.
• Seniority tiers (entry / mid / senior) come from the OEWS percentile spread and BLS level data.

Role context

Each role links to an O*NET profile — tasks, knowledge, skills, and work context — so you can confirm you're benchmarking the right job, not just a matching title.

Reading the numbers

• P25 / Median / P75 describe where pay falls across comparable organizations — a market range, not a recommendation.
• Every benchmark shows its data vintage and confidence so you know how current and how well-sampled it is.
• Figures are for informational purposes and don't constitute legal, tax, or compensation advice.