- Navigating Job Classifications and Pay Ranges in Nonprofits
Most small nonprofits don’t have a formal job classification system. They have a collection of job titles that evolved organically, salaries that were set based on whatever the budget allowed at hiring time, and a vague sense that some positions should pay more than others. The result is predictable: pay inequities, compression problems, FLSA violations,…
- Understanding Reasonable Compensation for Nonprofit Officers
The IRS doesn’t tell nonprofits exactly what to pay their officers. But they’ve made it very clear what happens when you pay too much. It’s called intermediate sanctions, and it can hit both the executive who received the excess compensation and the board members who approved it. Understanding “reasonable compensation” isn’t academic. It’s the legal…
- How to Conduct a Nonprofit Compensation Study (Without Hiring a Consultant)
Compensation consultants are great if you can afford them. Most small nonprofits can’t. A full compensation study from a reputable firm runs $5,000 to $25,000 depending on the size of your organization and the number of positions being benchmarked. For a nonprofit with a $1.5 million budget, that’s a meaningful line item. Here’s the good…
- IRS Form 990 Compensation Reporting: What Nonprofits Must Disclose
Your Form 990 is a public document. Anyone – donors, journalists, watchdog groups, your neighbors – can look up exactly what your nonprofit pays its top people. That’s not a bug in the system. It’s the deal nonprofits make in exchange for tax-exempt status: public money, public accountability. Which means getting your compensation reporting right…
- Nonprofit Salary Benchmarking: Why Guessing Costs You Talent
Every nonprofit leader has had this moment: your best program director walks into your office, says they’ve been offered $15,000 more at another organization, and asks if you can match it. You scramble through your budget, realize you have no idea what market rate actually is for that role, and either lose a great employee…
