Median Salaries for College Fund Raisers Increase 4.6 Percent, Survey Says

Median salaries for the top fund raisers at four-year colleges and universities rose

in the current academic year, but their counterparts at two-year institutions saw a decrease in median pay, according to the new edition of an annual survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Chief development officers at doctoral institutions were earning a median salary of $147,335 as of last fall, meaning that half were paid more and half were paid less. That figure represents an increase from $140,000 in the 2000-1 academic year, the survey says. Head fund raisers at institutions whose highest degree offering is a master’s earn a median salary of $99,599 (up from $98,000 the previous year), and their counterparts at baccalaureate institutions earn a median of $95,507 (up from $88,000 the previous year).

Chief fund raisers at two-year institutions earn a median salary of $63,900, down from $65,602 in the 2000-1 academic year, according to the survey.

The survey is based on salary information for 167 positions reported by 1,444 public and private institutions. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents also participated in last year’s survey. The latest survey used the 2000 Carnegie Classifications to determine how to categorize the participating institutions, while the previous year’s survey used a different set of criteria, the 1994 Carnegie Classifications.

The median salary increase for all jobs surveyed was 4.7 percent, just below the previous year’s median increase of 4.8 percent, and also below the 5-percent median increase reported in the association’s 1999-2000 survey. For external-affairs positions — which include all fund-raising jobs — the median raise was 4.6 percent, slightly above the increase of 4.4 percent reported in the previous year’s survey.

Among those jobs, the biggest increases in median salaries could be found at baccalaureate institutions. Median pay for directors of government and legislative relations there rose 19.4 percent between the current survey and the previous year’s, from $49,400 to $59,019. An increase of more than 13 percent was reported for the median pay of chief public-relations officers at baccalaureate institutions (from $51,000 in 2000-1 to $58,120 this academic year) and for executives who hold both chief development and public relations–officer titles (from $75,580 to $85,754 this year). By far the largest decrease in median salary was reported for directors of development and alumni affairs at doctoral institutions: Their pay dropped slightly more than 19 percent, from a 2000-1 figure of $109,125 to this year’s $88,265.

Copies of the “2001-2002 Administrative Compensation Survey” can be ordered online from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources or by phone at (202) 429-0311, extension 2. Copies of the survey can also be ordered by mail if addressed to the attention of the CUPA-HR Publications Department, 1233 20th Street, N.W., Suite 301, Washington, D.C. 20036-1250. Members of the association receive one free copy. Additional copies cost $105 for members who participated in the survey, $170 for members who did not participate, and $210 for nonmembers who participated in the survey. For all other institutions, the cost is $345.

MEDIAN SALARIES OF COLLEGE FUND-RAISING OFFICIALS, 2000-1