Methodology

All compensation data in this tool comes from IRS Form 990 returns filed electronically by tax-exempt organizations. These filings are public records, available through the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File and the GivingTuesday Data Commons (available under the Open Database License).

We index filings from tax years 2020–2025, covering Form 990 (standard) and Form 990-EZ (simplified) filers only. Three filing types are excluded:

• Form 990-PF (private foundations) — excluded by design. Private foundations operate under a fundamentally different governance model: they are typically funded by a single donor or family, do not solicit public contributions, and are subject to different legal constraints on compensation. Their executive pay is not a meaningful benchmark for public charities and community nonprofits, which is the audience this tool is designed for.
• Form 990-T (unrelated business income) — excluded because this filing reports tax on investment or commercial income, not organizational operations or compensation.
• Form 990-N (postcard return) — excluded because it contains no financial or compensation data.

Data for 2024 and 2025 is available but incomplete — see Limitations below for details.

Compensation figures are extracted from Part VII, Section A of Form 990, which reports compensation for officers, directors, trustees, key employees, and highest compensated employees.

Our primary benchmarking metric is reportable compensation from the organization (Column D) — salary, bonuses, and other taxable pay (W-2 or 1099-MISC income) paid directly by the filing organization. This is the cash compensation figure that boards typically set and approve.

Form 990 Part VII also reports two additional components:

• Reportable compensation from related organizations (Column E) — compensation from affiliates, subsidiaries, or parent organizations
• Other compensation (Column F) — deferred compensation, nontaxable benefits, and other forms of non-reportable income

These additional components are available in detailed views and CSV exports but are not included in the primary benchmarking figures. The sum of all three columns (D+E+F) represents total compensation.

Nonprofits report job titles in freeform text, leading to hundreds of variations for the same role (“CEO,” “Chief Executive Officer,” “Executive Director,” “President & CEO,” etc.). To enable meaningful comparison, we normalize these titles into a set of canonical roles:

The normalization engine uses a curated mapping of hundreds of known title variants supplemented by pattern-matching rules for less common phrasings. Titles that cannot be confidently mapped are excluded from role-based benchmarking.

The benchmarking tool lets you narrow compensation data to a relevant peer group using five dimensions:

Sector (NTEE Code)

Organizations are classified by mission area using the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE), a classification system created and maintained by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) at the Urban Institute. We source NTEE codes from two complementary files: the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (BMF) and the NCCS Unified BMF. Where the two sources differ, the NCCS classification takes precedence as the authoritative source. The tool filters by major group (26 top-level sectors like Education, Health Care, Human Services). Organizations without an assigned NTEE code are excluded when specific sectors are selected but included in unfiltered results.

Budget Size

Total annual expenses serve as the proxy for organizational size. Budget tiers are aligned with Candid/GuideStar compensation study breakpoints, from under $250K to $50M+. Custom ranges are also supported.

Geography

Filter nationally, by individual states, or by metropolitan statistical area (MSA). State filtering uses the organization's state of domicile as reported on the 990. Metro area filtering maps each organization's ZIP code to a Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA) using the Census Bureau's 2023 delineation files and a ZIP-to-county-to-CBSA crosswalk. CBSAs represent integrated labor markets — geographic areas where people live and commute for work — making them the natural unit for local compensation comparisons. Most indexed organizations fall within a defined metro or micropolitan area; the remainder are in rural areas and can only be filtered by state.

Schedule

Full-time (30+ hours per week) or part-time, based on average hours reported on the return.

Organization Type

Filter by 501(c) subsection: (c)(3) charitable, (c)(4) social welfare, (c)(5) labor/agricultural, (c)(6) trade associations, or other. By default all types are included.

When multiple filings exist for the same organization, only the most recent tax year is included to avoid double-counting.

Compensation statistics are computed from the filtered comparability set. We report the following measures:

• Median — the midpoint of the distribution (50th percentile). Less sensitive to outliers than the mean, making it the most reliable single benchmark.
• Mean — the arithmetic average. Useful for context but can be skewed by a few very high or very low values.
• Percentiles (10th, 25th, 75th, 90th) — computed using linear interpolation between the two nearest ranked values. These show where a specific compensation figure falls within the distribution.
• Range — the minimum and maximum reportable compensation in the set.

The distribution chart uses dynamic histogram bucketing, rounded to the nearest $5,000 increment, to show the shape of the compensation distribution across the peer set.

Raw 990 data contains errors, edge cases, and outliers that would distort benchmarks if left unchecked. We apply the following filters transparently:

• Minimum compensation threshold. Records with reportable compensation from the organization (Column D) below $10,000 are excluded from all benchmarking results. This removes unpaid board members ($0 comp), nominal stipends, part-year appointments, and data entry errors — none of which represent comparable compensated positions. The threshold is below federal minimum wage for even half-time work, ensuring legitimate salaries at small organizations are retained.
• Compensation capped at $10M. Figures exceeding $10,000,000 are excluded as data errors. The highest-paid nonprofit executives (major health systems) rarely exceed $5–7M in total compensation.
• Negative financial values clamped. IRS instructions specify that negative amounts should be reported as zero. Any negative total expenses, revenue, or compensation values encountered during processing are treated as zero.
• Compensation-to-budget ratio check. Records where an individual’s reportable compensation exceeds twice the organization’s total expenses are excluded. This catches data entry errors (e.g., an extra digit) where compensation appears implausibly large relative to the organization’s budget.
• Inactive organizations excluded. Organizations with $0 in total expenses are excluded from benchmarking. These are typically shell entities, newly formed organizations, or filing errors that would distort the smallest budget tier.
• Former officers excluded. Individuals flagged as former officers, directors, or trustees on the return — or whose title contains “former,” “retired,” “emeritus,” or similar terms — are removed from benchmarking results, as their compensation typically reflects partial-year or legacy arrangements rather than current market rates.
• Most recent filing only. When multiple filings exist for the same organization and role, only the most recent tax year is included, preventing double-counting. When amended returns exist, the most recently submitted version is retained.

We prefer the median over the mean as the primary benchmark because it is inherently resistant to outliers — a practice consistent with the Candid Nonprofit Compensation Report and other industry-standard references.

• Filing lag. Form 990 is due on the 15th day of the 5th month after the fiscal year ends, with extensions available. Most filings appear 12–24 months after the period they cover. The data here reflects the most recent available filings, not current compensation.
• 2024–2025 data is incomplete. As of early 2026, most organizations with calendar fiscal years have not yet filed their 2024 returns (still within extension windows). Fiscal-year filers with year-ends before June 2025 may already be available. Both years are indexed and will grow as filings arrive — but peer sets anchored to these years will be smaller and less representative until coverage fills in.
• Self-reported data. Compensation figures are reported by the filing organization. While 990s are signed under penalty of perjury, errors and inconsistencies do occur.
• E-file only. This tool indexes electronically filed returns. Organizations that file on paper are not included.
• Title normalization is imperfect. Some titles are ambiguous (“Director” could mean board member or department head). Our mapping is conservative — when in doubt, a title is excluded rather than mis-classified.
• NTEE codes are not always current. We combine classifications from the IRS Business Master File and the NCCS Unified BMF (the authoritative NTEE source) to maximize coverage. Despite this, some organizations — particularly those not classified as 501(c)(3) — remain without an NTEE code. These are excluded when sector filters are applied but included in unfiltered results.
• Not legal or tax advice. This tool is for informational purposes. Compensation decisions should be made in consultation with qualified advisors.