Nonprofit Compensation & Benefits Report Released by Rollins Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center

ORLANDO, Fla., July 9, 2009 — The Rollins Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center today announced the findings of its 2009 Nonprofit Compensation and Benefits Report. The study, which is the second of its kind, examined the compensation, benefits and employment practices of over 145 eligible nonprofit organizations, a sector that employs over 14,400 people in the Central Florida region.

“Since the two years when we released our initial findings, we’ve seen mounting pressure on nonprofits to compete for talent with their business counterparts, resulting in higher pay at the top-level and a need for more comprehensive benefits for employees at all levels,” said Margaret Linanne, executive director of the Center. “However, given the economy, nonprofit employees are staying longer at their jobs, and only a small percent expect to offer salary increases for employees in 2009.”

Compensation
The report found that male CEOs/executive directors earn significantly higher pay than their female counterparts on average. According to the report, the average annual compensation for male CEOs/executive directors was $110,962 versus $80,987 per year for females. While more of the surveyed CEOs/executive directors are women, there are more males in the CEO/executive director positions at the largest organizations.

Fifty-three percent of the CEOs/executive directors in the survey hold a master’s degree or doctorate. Salaries were generally seen to increase with the level of education achieved; those with a master’s degree earned an average salary of $105,866 versus those with a bachelor’s degree, who earned an average of $85,318.

Base salary levels for the four executive positions reported in detail have risen significantly since the Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership Center’s initial 2007 study:

* CEO/executive director: $93,939 in 2009 versus $79,161 in 2007
* COO/associate director: $87,897 in 2009 versus $72,902 in 2007
* CFO: $90,897 in 2009 versus $85,135 in 2007
* Development director: $72,323 in 2009 versus $69,107 in 2007

The significant increase in executive salaries, particularly of the CEO/executive director and COO/associate director positions, may be partly explained by the increase in large nonprofit organizations participating in the 2009 survey. Pay for the highest-level positions tend to correlate most closely with organizational size.

Of the 100 positions reported in 2007, 97 of them were also reported in 2009. Overall, the average annualized increase in salaries for these positions during the two years between March 1, 2007, and March 1, 2009, was 2.2 percent. However, only 47 percent of surveyed organizations expect to have salary increases in their current fiscal year — an indication of the current economic turmoil and uncertainty.

Benefits
Eighty-eight percent of participating organizations offer some level of medical insurance to full-time employees; however, the premiums covered by employers has generally dropped. For example, in 2007, 58 percent of organizations offering PPO insurance for employees paid 100 percent of the premium. In 2009, 47 percent of employers offering that type of plan paid 100 percent for employees. (These numbers do not include organizations whose insurance plans are offered though Section 125 cafeteria plans.)

Sixty-eight percent of participating organizations offer retirement benefits to their employees, an increase over the 62 percent of organizations with a retirement benefit in 2007. A slightly higher proportion of employers now offer plans funded solely by employee contributions: 16 percent in 2009 as compared with 12 percent in 2007.

Employment
Compared to 2007, the proportion of full-time and part-time employees is relatively unchanged. Sixty-four percent of employees worked full-time in 2007 compared to 66 percent of employees who work full-time in 2009. Turnover among these employees has dropped from an average of 24 percent for full-time employees and 36 percent for part-time employees in 2008 to 18 percent for full-time employees and 27 percent for part-time employees in 2009. These lower turnover rates may be related to the troubled economic environment at the time of data collection.

Methodology
Data was compiled on more than 8,300 individual salaries and categorized into 121 job titles. In 2009, 145 nonprofit organizations participated in the study compared to 153 in 2007. Although the number of participating organizations was slightly smaller compared to the 2007 survey, the addition of relatively large nonprofits to the survey sample in 2009 provides a larger overall data sample.

To purchase a copy of the 2009 Nonprofit Compensation and Benefits Report, log on to: http://www.pnlc.rollins.edu/salary_survey09.shtml.

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