N.Y. Charity Officers Paid ‘Poorly,’ Says Report

Among small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations in the New York City area, education, environment, and societal-benefit groups, such as community and civil-rights organizations,

pay their leaders the highest salaries, according to a new survey. Executive directors of such groups with annual operating budgets of $2-million to $4,999,999 reported a median salary of $120,000, meaning that half the directors made more and half less.

The survey, released last month, was based on data from 342 members of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York , an umbrella organization in the New York metropolitan area. The groups provided figures for the four top positions in their organizations. The committee’s first-ever salary survey examined groups with annual operating budgets of up to $5-million, but most were fairly small: Sixty-two percent of the respondents had annual operating budgets of less than $1-million. Of the 342 respondents, 239 had fewer than 10 full-time staff members, while 59 had 11 to 20 full-time workers and 44 groups had more than 20 employees. Twenty-seven of the 342 groups said they had no full-time staff members at all.

The highest median salary for deputy directors — $98,279 — was earned by those who worked for societal-benefit groups that had annual operating budgets of $2-million to $4,999,999. The highest-paid chief financial officers in the survey — those who worked for education groups in this same budget bracket — made a median salary of $80,000. Directors of development at societal-benefit groups made the highest median salary — $81,135 — in that budget category.

The survey also reported that the lowest median salary for executive directors — $27,500 — was among leaders of arts, culture, or humanities groups with budgets under $200,000. Deputy directors at arts groups in the same budget range made the least among their counterparts, $21,500. Chief financial officers at societal-benefit groups with budgets between $1-million and $1,999,999 made the lowest median salary — $42,000 — and chief fund raisers at health and human-service groups with annual budgets between $400,000 and $699,999 had the lowest median salary, at $33,000.

The committee says it is still interpreting the data from the survey, but one thing seems clear, says Dan Myers, who oversaw the survey: “When you look at the median figures, people are poorly paid.”

Copies of the survey are available to members only, at http://www.npccny.org.

MEDIAN SALARIES OF NEW YORK CITY NONPROFIT EXECUTIVES