Research
Original data on nonprofit compensation.
Data-based analyses from the IRS Form 990 corpus behind CauseComp's benchmarks. Every release is free to cite with attribution and a link, publishes its full methodology and caveats, and names no organizations and no individuals.
The §4958 regulations ask boards for pay data from similarly situated organizations — like services, like enterprises, like circumstances. A CauseComp analysis of 732,319 Form 990 filings measures the gap between that standard and the single national median boards most often reach for: in nearly two-thirds of similarly-situated cohorts, the cohort's own median sits more than 25% away from the role's national figure, and the typical gap is 38%.
Pay Structure Geography or Mission? Neither — Budget Size Moves Nonprofit Executive Pay Most, and It Is Not CloseBoards argue about cost-of-living adjustments and sector premiums. A variance decomposition across 732,319 Form 990 filings finds both arguments are about the small dials: organization budget size explains roughly five times more of the variation in officer pay than state, and roughly four times more than mission sector.
Pay Structure The Unbenchmarked Roles: Two-Fifths of Reported Nonprofit Officer Pay Sits in Positions the Surveys Barely CoverPublished compensation surveys concentrate on a familiar list — the CEO, the CFO, a handful of chiefs. The filings do not: across 732,319 Form 990 officer filings, 39.4% of all reported compensation — $64.6 billion of $164.2 billion — was paid in roles outside that familiar list, in positions boards must still price and can rarely look up.
Annual Compensation Report The 2026 Nonprofit Compensation Report: What the Newest IRS Filings Show — and How Far Behind the Market They Already AreNonprofit boards benchmark executive pay against IRS Form 990 filings — data that is stale on arrival. In CauseComp's analysis of 2.08 million compensation records, including the first wave of May 2026 filings, even organizations filing the freshest data show pay running about 4% behind a 2026-projected market, and boards relying on FY2022 filings are benchmarking 16% behind. The report also maps what organization size really does to the corner-office paycheck, shows nonprofit CEO pay tracking inflation almost exactly since 2019 — while diverging sharply by organization size — and ranks all 50 states and DC on size-adjusted executive pay.
§4960 Excise Tax The Expanded Section 4960 Excise Tax Reaches Up to 28% More Nonprofit Employees — and Almost No New OrganizationsThe 2025 tax law expanded which nonprofit employees can trigger the 21% excise tax on compensation over $1 million — from each organization's five highest-paid employees to any employee. A CauseComp analysis of the most recent IRS Form 990 Schedule J filings from more than 67,000 organizations finds the expansion reaches an estimated 734 to 1,302 additional employees earning over $1 million — a 25–28% increase — while adding essentially zero newly exposed organizations. The impact lands almost entirely on hospitals, universities, and organizations with budgets above $100 million.