Non profit salaries

[Anonymous]

I'm so tired of "commensurate with experience."

I'm a communications professional with just under 20 years experience--mostly agency. What kind of salary can I expect/ ask for if I move over to non profit? I'm aware that the market bestows that title on people with half the experience, for half the pay it's worth.

Someone told me $90k is upper limit but that sounds lowball for a communications director position.

[Anonymous]

Communications director at a non-profit here - 90k sounds spot on to me.

[Anonymous]

Yup. Unless it's a big org, maybe $120k. Go to ASAE and get the salary survey. You can buy PDFs of individual job categories for a pretty reasonable price. I make $130k at a large org as a marketing director with 20+ years, all in non-profits.

[Anonymous]

$65k for a small to mid size org, $85k for a mid to large, $90-120k for one of the really big organizations.

If they are a c3, top salaries are disclosed on their 990s. Check guidestar.org to get a feel for what they are paying their folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$65k for a small to mid size org, $85k for a mid to large, $90-120k for one of the really big organizations.

If they are a c3, top salaries are disclosed on their 990s. Check guidestar.org to get a feel for what they are paying their folks.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$65k for a small to mid size org, $85k for a mid to large, $90-120k for one of the really big organizations.

If they are a c3, top salaries are disclosed on their 990s. Check guidestar.org to get a feel for what they are paying their folks.

+1

this is great advice. i have to say, if a nonprofit is well endowed or has a steady stream of high level funders, then you can definitely make more than 90k. but you need to know how wealthy the nonprofit is.

[Anonymous]

it's a non-profit. Why do people expect to get well-paid? High-paying non-profit usually means they're not really non-profit (tax dodging scheme).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it's a non-profit. Why do people expect to get well-paid? High-paying non-profit usually means they're not really non-profit (tax dodging scheme).

Not true. If you want to make an impact, or have complex operations, or really anything else, you need to pay for talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it's a non-profit. Why do people expect to get well-paid? High-paying non-profit usually means they're not really non-profit (tax dodging scheme).

actually foundations count as nonprofits too. and there are plenty with a ton of money who can pay smart professionals very handsomely to do good work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$65k for a small to mid size org, $85k for a mid to large, $90-120k for one of the really big organizations.

If they are a c3, top salaries are disclosed on their 990s. Check guidestar.org to get a feel for what they are paying their folks.

+1

this is great advice. i have to say, if a nonprofit is well endowed or has a steady stream of high level funders, then you can definitely make more than 90k. but you need to know how wealthy the nonprofit is.

Pay can be much more at business-like places, especially if you have a graduate degree and work hard/smartly. Kennedy school grads I know working at sophisticated ROI-focused nonprofits with serious donors make good money. They match gates foundation comp all the time, and that place mainly hires, MBAs, JDs, and MPAs.