Is your nonprofit paying its leaders fairly?
Free nonprofit salary benchmarks. Look up CEO, executive director, CFO, and staff pay and see how you compare to peer organizations by budget size, state, and cause area. Built from IRS 990 filings across 181,829 nonprofits.
Where does your pay land?
Pick a role, your geography, and your organization's budget. Enter what you pay (or what you're considering) and we'll show where it sits against peer organizations.
Metro-area benchmarks are part of a paid plan — sign up to get started.
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How CEO / Executive Director pay scales nationally
| Sample size | 16789 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $4K |
| 25th percentile | $14K |
| Median | $34K |
| 75th percentile | $59K |
| 90th percentile | $84K |
| Sample size | 20058 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $12K |
| 25th percentile | $33K |
| Median | $61K |
| 75th percentile | $87K |
| 90th percentile | $115K |
| Sample size | 21447 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $20K |
| 25th percentile | $50K |
| Median | $81K |
| 75th percentile | $113K |
| 90th percentile | $155K |
| Sample size | 25937 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $35K |
| 25th percentile | $74K |
| Median | $108K |
| 75th percentile | $152K |
| 90th percentile | $211K |
| Sample size | 15706 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $52K |
| 25th percentile | $101K |
| Median | $143K |
| 75th percentile | $202K |
| 90th percentile | $287K |
| Sample size | 11561 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $65K |
| 25th percentile | $124K |
| Median | $178K |
| 75th percentile | $251K |
| 90th percentile | $361K |
| Sample size | 10075 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $77K |
| 25th percentile | $156K |
| Median | $225K |
| 75th percentile | $322K |
| 90th percentile | $466K |
| Sample size | 4536 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $69K |
| 25th percentile | $192K |
| Median | $292K |
| 75th percentile | $429K |
| 90th percentile | $638K |
| Sample size | 5500 |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $79K |
| 25th percentile | $264K |
| Median | $459K |
| 75th percentile | $792K |
| 90th percentile | $1.5M |
Across peer organizations nationally in this budget bracket, the median CEO / Executive Director earns $108K. Half the field falls between $74K and $152K.
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What you get
Free, interactive nonprofit pay benchmarks — refreshed every year.
Built from the public IRS Form 990 Part VII filings, refreshed as the IRS publishes new batches.
How we built these benchmarks
- Source: IRS Form 990 Part VII filings (the public disclosure of nonprofit officer pay).
- Positions classified by an AI model into 14 standard nonprofit leadership roles.
- Peer cells require at least 5 filings; smaller samples are suppressed.
- Updated annually as IRS publishes new 990 batches. Latest data: May 2026.
Nonprofit salary questions, answered
How much does a nonprofit CEO or executive director make?+
Nonprofit CEO and executive director pay scales with the size of the organization. For nonprofits with $1M – $2.5M in annual expenses, the median total compensation is about $108,150, drawn from IRS Form 990 filings. Use the free calculator above to see the full pay range for your budget size, state, and cause area.
Where does this nonprofit salary data come from?+
Every figure comes from public IRS Form 990 filings, the annual returns nonprofits submit to the federal government. Kindora aggregates 605,089 reported compensation records for paid nonprofit leaders and refreshes them as new filings are released.
Is the nonprofit salary lookup free?+
Yes. Looking up CEO, executive director, CFO, and staff pay by budget size, state, and cause area is completely free, with no login required. Paid Kindora plans add deeper cuts like metro-area and sub-sector layering plus peer-organization detail.
What roles can I look up?+
CEO and executive director, chief financial officers, chief operating officers, development and fundraising directors, program directors, and other leadership roles nonprofits commonly report on their Form 990.
Ready to compare more?
The free public calculator covers all 50 states and 8 cause areas — and lets you layer them — in English or Spanish, no login required. A free account adds saved benchmarks and the side-by-side comparison studio. Paid plans add metro-area and sub-sector drill-downs, board-ready PDF exports, and the API/MCP integration.