Kudos to you! You serve on a nonprofit board of directors. It’s interesting work and the organization provides great services to the community. A troubling issue however, is the level of staff compensation. It seems low compared to for-profit business, but they are working for the mission – right? Salaries and benefits are the highest allocations in almost any budget so raising the bar across an organization usually takes time and strategic decisions. It is however, a commitment to the future of any viable entity.
Most staff members at area nonprofits are highly dedicated, but they too have mortgages, kids in college, and a need for retirement funding. As in every sector, the impending retirement of boomers is sending a shiver of reality down the spine of people concerned about the future. Recently minted advanced degrees, including nonprofit management, finance and social work are entering the field with a higher burden of debt than the people they are replacing, often making the ‘mission over money’ choice untenable.
Nationally there is a trend in merit pay for nonprofit employees, and research shows that high turnover in some positions (executive director and development staff) takes a heavy toll on fundraising revenues. If talent is going to get tighter, and cost more both for new hires and in turnover, you want to be sure your organization can attract and retain good staff.
Assuming you are a board member who advocates for operating nonprofits like businesses you realize that nonprofits need to respond to the market in hiring employees. But what is the market? If you are committed to quality staff and a justifiable bottom line on administrative costs, how do you know what to pay?
The Portland-Vancouver 2007 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Survey is currently collecting data from area organizations to help answer that question. Now in its fourth edition, the salary survey offers current pay data averages for more than 70 jobs in 14 job families, and 18 benefit topics and pay practices. The survey is customized for the nonprofit community by containing related job families such as development, fundraising, housing, program management, social services, volunteer services and more. It is specific to our region, offering stronger potential comparisons than national averages.
This detailed report presents data according to geography, annual operating budget, area of emphasis, and FTE, for convenient comparison to similar organizations. The survey also offers a historical comparison of pay trends from the previous survey.
The survey was created through the combined efforts of a cross-sector of nonprofit employers, in partnership with the Nonprofit Network of SW Washington, Technical Assistance for Community Services, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, Willamette Valley Development Officers, Neighborhood Partnership Fund, Nonprofit Council-Bend Chamber, Community Action Directors of Oregon and the MBL Group, LLC. When published in January 2008 the survey will provide the most current published information employers can use to evaluate and modify their recruiting strategies.
Whether your organization has one staff member, or one hundred, your participation helps to increase the validity of local comparisons. As an incentive, all organizations that participate in the 2007 Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Survey will receive a complimentary executive summary, 60 percent discount off the purchase price and be entered into a drawing for one of several prizes including expert consulting.
Open participation is now through Oct. 5, 2007 for January 2008 publication.
For more information or to sign-up for participation, visit the 2007 Nonprofit Salary & Benefits Survey website at www.mblgroup.com/survey/np/index.html or call MBL Group, LCC, at 503-224-7249.
Jeanne Kojis is the executive director of the Nonprofit Network and editor of the email, Nonprofit Network News.She can be reached at jkojis@npnnw.org, 360-735-7110 or visit www.npnnw.org.
