Fundraiser Salaries Have Barely Budged This Decade, Report Says

First, the good news: Fundraiser pay rose 4.8 percent in 2016, to a median annual salary of $65,000, according to the latest tally by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Now, the bad: Except for a spike in 2012 and a drop in 2015, median fundraiser pay has hovered right around that $65,000 mark since 2010.

Nevertheless, 71 percent of all fundraisers in the survey got raises last year, the fourth consecutive year in which that figure has increased. The finding, coupled with anecdotal evidence from recruiters, suggests continued high demand, says Michael Nilsen, vice president for public affairs at AFP.

“While the salaries can be flattening out, there’s still a lot of activity in the field, a lot of opportunities,” Mr. Nilsen says.

Average salary figures show how flat pay has become for fundraising’s rank and file: Average annual compensation across the field dropped by just under 1 percent in 2016, to $70,256.

The top 25 percent of respondents, who earned more than $86,500 on average, and the bottom 25 percent, who earned $49,000 or less, both saw a minimal increase over the previous year.

The survey included responses from 1,738 members of the fundraising association. The average respondent was on his or her third fundraising job, with a typical time at each post of nearly four years.

Gender Gap Closing

Though women make up three-quarters of the fundraising field, they still lag behind their male colleagues in compensation, averaging $68,060 in salary in 2016 versus $80,206 for men.

However, that gap shrank for the second consecutive year in the survey.

The association’s diversity and inclusion committee is working on the pay-gap issue, with an eye toward developing tools to help charities move toward compensating male and female fundraisers equally.

“We need to have a conversation about salary equality, but it’s got to be a lot of little conversations, with boards and CEOs,” Mr. Nilsen says.

The report found that having a certification credential can give fundraisers greater earning power. Respondents who had a Certified Fundraising Executive designation, or CFRE, reported average salaries more than $21,000 higher than those of fundraisers without the credential. Fundraisers with the advanced ACFRE degree made $27,000 more on average than noncredentialed peers.

Among other findings:

• Fundraisers in the Northwest were the biggest earners in 2016, averaging pay of $74,636. People who raise money for charities in the northern Midwest made the least: $68,090.
• Nearly 20 percent of respondents said they entered the fundraising profession right out of school or college. That share has been growing steadily: In 2005, just 11 percent of people surveyed said fundraising was their path after school or college.
• Contrary to fundraisers’ reputation as job hoppers, most respondents seemed committed to their organizations. Half said they plan to stay in their present position indefinitely, and 21 percent said they hoped to climb the management ladder at their current organization.