March 18, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Q. Could you provide me with sources for researching nonprofit groups that include bonuses in their fund raisers’ compensation?
A. Bonuses, or performance incentives, are controversial in fund raising, but they are becoming more and more common, since the demand for experienced fund raisers outstrips supply, says Paulette V. Maehara, president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in Alexandria, Va. The association deals with bonuses in its code of ethics, declaring that any bonus based on a percentage of dollars raised is an ethical violation. However, Ms. Maehara says, the code allows for bonuses based on different criteria — such as the number of new donors or the number of new volunteers. Ideally, she says, the bonus should be available not only to a fund raiser or a group of fund raisers in the organization, but to the entire staff. “Fund raising is not solely done by one person. It’s typically done by a team, and so a bonus should be provided to those staff that are involved,” she says.
There isn’t a single source that lists all nonprofit groups that offer a bonus to fund raisers. You could get some more information from the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ annual compensation and benefits survey ($75 for AFP members, $150 for nonmembers; order through the association’s Web site by calling (800) 666-3863 or contacting the association’s Resource Center, 1101 King Street, Suite 700, Alexandria, Va., 22314). The most recent version finds that, when fund raisers do receive bonuses, the money makes up only a small portion of their income. In the association’s survey, 40 percent of the fewer than 300 respondents who say they received bonuses report that their bonuses ranged from 1 to 3 percent of their total income. Only 12 percent of fund raisers surveyed who received bonuses say that the money made up 16 percent or more of their total income.
For more on charities and bonuses — and the controversial approaches some groups take — check out this Chronicle of Philanthropy story from last fall about how some nonprofit organizations use incentive pay.
