- Some types of organizations pay far more than others. The CEOs of technology and medical research organizations, as well as health groups, made median salaries of $200,000 or more. Leaders of arts and culture groups, animal charities, and religious organizations were at the bottom of the compensation scale, with median salaries of $107,000 or less.
- Bigger organizations have the resources to pay more and give bigger annual raises. Leaders of organizations with budgets of $50 million or more made a median salary of $304,000 — nearly seven times the $45,000 median that leaders of charities with budgets of $250,000 or less made. Median salary increases were 3.1 percent or less at organizations with budgets under $5 million and 3.3 percent or more — often closer to 4 percent — at groups with budgets of $5 million or more.
- CEOs in Washington, D.C., which has many think tanks and prominent national associations, made a higher median salary — $196,000 — than leaders in any state. New York state came in second, at $167,000.
Gender pay gap growing at largest nonprofits
The mixed news for gender equity comes from Candid's 2026 Nonprofit Compensation Report, which analyzed data from nearly 120,000 tax-exempt organizations using 2024 data.
Median pay for all executives in the survey rose about 2.9 percent, to $141,000 in 2024 — roughly matching the rate of inflation. From 2020 to 2024, salaries rose 13 percent, lagging well behind inflation measures, which suggests that nonprofit executive salaries are not keeping up with the cost of living.
Back in 2014, women leading the largest organizations made 77 percent as much as men, according to the report. The widening discrepancy in pay — coupled with the shortage of female leaders at the biggest charities — raises the risk that fewer women may aspire to top jobs at big charities, experts say.
At small charities with budgets of $250,000 or less, 58 percent of leaders are women, the report found. At nonprofits with budgets of $50 million or more, only 31 percent of leaders are women.
“We are tackling some huge social challenges in the nonprofit sector, and having the best people being treated fairly leading large organizations is hugely important,” says Cathleen Clerkin, Candid’s associate vice president of research. “[Pay equity] is certainly something we need to address in order to live up to our potential as a sector.”
Multiple factors explain why the wide pay gap persists at big charities, says Young-joo Lee, a professor specializing in women’s philanthropy at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Women are often subject to the “glass cliff” — brought in as leaders during crises because they’re seen as more creative or nurturing, Lee says. But these women leaders often shoulder the blame if a turnaround doesn’t succeed — and are paid less than counterparts along the way because the organizations are struggling financially, she says.
The makeup of boards also plays a role. While women hold most board positions at small charities, men still outnumber women on boards at charities with budgets of $1 million or more. The disparity increases as the size of the organizations grows, according to Candid’s State of Diversity report. The women who do serve on boards at large charities are less likely than men to hold committee positions that focus on compensation and executive searches, Lee says.
“We need to think about what positions women hold on boards — not just having more women on boards,” Lee says.
At charities with budgets of $1 million or less, women leaders made 93 to 96 percent of what men earned in 2024 — up from 85 to 92 percent in 2014. “The gap is down to pennies on the dollar,” Clerkin says.
The 2026 report, now in its 26th edition, looks at wages by gender, geography, program focus, and executive role. The 7,400-page report is heavily used by charities in deciding what to pay leaders and by new and existing executives in deciding what level of pay to seek, Clerkin says.
Corrections: An earlier version of this article said women leaders made 77 percent as much as men in Candid’s 2025 report; the correct year was 2014. That version also said only 20 percent of the leaders of the nation’s largest charities were women; the correct figure is 31 percent.