August 2002

• Gender
• Organization Type
• Geography

---

GuideStar has recently released its second annual report on compensation in public charities. The 2002 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report, which draws exclusively on fiscal year 2000 Form 990 data from more than 65,000 public charities, examines compensation by gender, 14 job categories, 9 budget categories, and 378 program categories. Information is also reported by state and for 254 metropolitan statistical areas. Below are some highlights of the report.

More information about the report >

Gender 

As was the case in last year's report, which covered fiscal years 1998 and 1999, women generally earne significantly less than men. Overall, males had median compensation of $74, 609, or 31.2 percent more than the median for females ($56,885). In all job categories, median compensation of males exceeded that of females.

Compensation by Gender and Job Category

	Female		Male
Job Category	Number	Median Salary	Number	Median Salary	Gender Gap
CEO/Executive Director	23,091	$50,554	29,063	$70,820	40.1%
Top Administrative Position	2,063	$62,099	2,080	$75,443	21.5%
Top Business Position	492	$61,125	673	$74,750	22.3%
Top Development Position	1,357	$68,053	1,568	$78,705	15.7%
Top Education/Training Position	246	$62,754	339	$72,923	16.2%
Top Facilities Position	33	$64,310	343	$69,321	7.8%
Top Financial Position	3,163	$61,716	5,557	$82,040	32.9%
Top Human Resources Position	480	$70,606	605	$90,728	28.5%
Top Legal Position	238	$79,092	489	$89,002	12.5%
Top Marketing Position	335	$70,109	452	$79,695	13.7%
Top Operations Position	904	$75,630	1,650	$94,873	25.4%
Top Program Position	1,137	$59,975	1,426	$65,951	10.0%
Top Public Relations Position	211	$69,387	288	$77,614	11.9%
Top Technology Position	178	$71,096	820	$85,837	20.7%

Source: 2002 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report

To some degree, this disparity can be explained by the difference in the size of organizations at which men and women work. Of the 34,857 females in the report, 48.0 percent worked at organizations with budgets of $1 million or less, whereas only 32.1 percent of males worked at nonprofits of that size. On the high end, 22.9 percent of the females worked at organizations with budgets greater than $5 million, versus 38.5 percent of males. Even when controlling for the size of organization, however, women still earned less. As the table below shows, male CEOs at every budget level out-earned their female counterparts in FY 2000.

Compensation by Gender and Budget Size

	Female		Male
Budget Size	Number	Median Salary	Number	Median Salary	Gender Gap
$250,000 or less	5,977	$31,159	4,841	$36,274	16.4%
$250,000-$500,000	4,493	$41,487	3,787	$48,863	17.8%
$500,000-$1,000,000	4,182	$52,403	4,253	$60,000	14.5%
$1,000,000-$2,500,000	4,010	$64,953	5,455	$73,805	13.6%
$2,500,000-$5,000,000	1,976	$78,744	3,445	$89,500	13.7%
$5,000,000-$10,000,000	1,267	$91,179	2,793	$105,699	15.9%
$10,000,000-$25,000,000	759	$111,545	2,297	$135,937	21.9%
$25,000,000-$50,000,000	222	$143,188	890	$175,913	22.9%
More than $50,000,000	205	$186,088	1,302	$271,032	45.6%

Source: 2002 GuideStar Nonprofit Compensation Report

Generally, male CEOs also earned more regardless of organization type. In the 114 program/budget categories with sufficient numbers of both gender to make meaningful comparisons, women earned more than men in only 11 categories. In K-12 education organizations with budgets of $250,000 to $500,000, the median compensation for women CEOs was 17.1 percent higher than that for men, the largest disparity in favor of women. The largest difference in favor of males was in hospitals with budgets greater than $50 million, where the median for males was 63.1 percent higher.

Suzanne E. Coffman
© Philanthropic Research, Inc.