Fund Raisers’ Pay Hits New High, Compensation Survey Finds

The median salary of U.S. fund raisers jumped last year by more than 15 percent, to $72,050, or about $10,000 more than in 2003, according to a new survey by the

Association of Fundraising Professionals. The finding marks the biggest earnings growth by far in the five years the group has been conducting its annual survey.

The top 25 percent of the survey respondents earned more than $98,360, while the bottom quartile earned $55,375 or less.

The fund-raising association, in Alexandria, Va., surveyed its members in the United States and Canada about the compensation and benefits they receive, and based its findings on 919 respondents. The figures reported for 2003 were based on responses from about 1,400 association members.

Fund raisers in Canada last year took home a median salary — meaning that half made more and half made less — of about $48,000 in U.S. dollars, the same as in 2003.

Female fund raisers in the United States earned a median salary of $23,000 less per year than their male counterparts. In Canada, the salary gap was much more narrow, with the median salary for men outpacing women’s earnings by less than $10,000 per year in U.S. dollars.

Sixty-two percent of the association’s more than 26,000 members are women, according to the group, as were 68 percent of the respondents to the survey. Sixty percent of the survey respondents were age 45 to 64, also reflecting the larger group’s makeup, which is weighted “toward older practitioners,” a report on the survey says. Like the association’s broader membership, fewer than 10 percent of the respondents were members of a minority group.

Among the survey’s U.S. highlights:

• Chief development officers drew a median salary of $73,500, up 13 percent from the previous year, while the median salary for those holding the No. 2 spot in nonprofit fund-raising departments shot up 20 percent, to more than $66,000. The median salary for fund raisers who manage specific programs, such as planned giving or annual gifts, rose by nearly 14 percent, to $62,500, and chief executives who are mainly in charge of fund raising saw their median salary grow by 8 percent, to $78,000. Fund-raising consulting firms also increased pay for their employees, handing out a median salary of $100,000 to their principals, nearly one-quarter more than in 2003.
• Over all, fund raisers at consulting firms earned a higher median salary than development officers employed by nonprofit organizations. Fund raisers at trade and professional associations came close, with a median salary of $93,250. And their counterparts at scientific or research groups earned a median of $86,000. Among the lowest-paid fund raisers were those at social-service organizations and religious groups, with median salaries of $64,000 and $63,000, respectively.
• More than one-quarter of the fund raisers who responded to the survey worked in the Northeast. They earned a median salary of $72,750. Wages last year were highest in the Southwest, with a median of $79,903, and lowest in the south central region of the country, with a median of $65,260.
• Starting wages may be going up. Fund raisers who had been with their employers for one year or less — representing 18 percent of all respondents who reported their number of years on the job — earned a median salary of $70,000, up from $60,000 in 2003.

The Association of Fundraising Professionals’ “2005 Compensation and Benefits Study” is available free online in the Member Gateway section of the association’s Web site, http://www.afpnet.org. Nonmembers may purchase a copy of the survey report for $65 from the association’s professional advancement department. To order, contact Kijuana Wright at profadv@afpnet.org.