Nonprofit salary benchmarks

Nonprofit salaries by role

One median per role, taken straight from IRS Form 990 filings — the compensation nonprofits actually reported, not a survey and not an estimate. Every figure below rests on at least 20 filings.

Data updated October 4, 2026.

Looking for a report rather than one role's figure? Read the 2026 Nonprofit Compensation Report, CauseComp's analysis of IRS Form 990 compensation filings.

A few roles above carry a figure but no page of their own. Those are roles where no single state has enough filings to report separately, so a dedicated page could say nothing the row above does not already say.

Method: the median of reported total compensation across matching IRS Form 990 Schedule J and Part VII filings, rounded to the nearest $1,000, with no role published below 20 filings — full methodology. These are market reads, not comparability data: for a figure matched to one organization's budget, sector and location, and the peer filers behind it, use the Executive benchmark tool. New to the rules that govern nonprofit pay decisions? Start with the §4958 guides.

A median is where a benchmark starts; the six steps of executive compensation benchmarking cover the rest. Many roles in this table sit outside the thirteen that published pay surveys concentrate on; our research on the unbenchmarked roles measures that gap.

Documented comparability data supports — but does not by itself establish — a board's rebuttable presumption of reasonableness under IRC §4958 (intermediate sanctions). The presumption also requires advance approval by an independent board body and contemporaneous documentation. CauseComp provides comparability data for informational purposes and does not provide legal or tax advice.