Salaries of Top Fund Raisers in Higher Education Rose 4.6% in 2000

By DEBRA E. BLUM

Salaries of top fund raisers at colleges and universities continued to climb last year, although more slowly than in prior years, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Chief development officers are earning a median salary of $93,000 in the academic year that began last fall, up 4.6 percent from the previous year, the survey says. That follows pay raises of 5 percent in 1998 and 6 percent in 1999.

Median salaries mark the point at which half of the officials earn more and half earn less.

The association’s survey is based on salary information for 167 positions provided by 1,466 public and private institutions. About 85 percent of those institutions participated in last year’s survey.

The overall median increase for all administrative job types in colleges and universities was 5.6 percent, up from 5 percent last year.

Directors of corporate and foundation relations saw the biggest increase among fund-raising officers — 7 percent, to $58,830.

Top development officers who also oversee public-relations efforts were the only fund raisers to see their median salary go down in the current academic year. But the dip was slight — 0.2 percent — and followed raises of 13 percent in 1998 and 9 percent in 1999. Such officers continued to earn the highest median pay among college fund raisers — $99,240.

Salaries vary significantly depending on the size of an institution’s entire annual budget.

Chief development officers at institutions with budgets of $18.1-million or less, for example, are earning a median salary of $65,000. Officers in the same position at institutions that each year spend $93.8-million or more are earning more than twice that amount.

Copies of the “2000-2001 Administrative Compensation Survey” can be ordered online at http://www.cupahr.org/HRpubs/newbooks.htm, or by phone at (202) 429-0311, ext. 2. Members of the human-resource association receive one free copy. Each additional copy costs $100 for survey participants. The price is $165 for members that did not participate, $195 for non-members that participated, and $330 for all others.