Fundraiser Salary Growth Slowed in 2019

Fundraiser salaries rose in 2019 but at a much slower pace than the year before, according to the latest annual compensation report by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The median fundraiser salary was $74,000 in 2019, up 2 percent from $72,500 in 2018, according to the report, which was based on a survey of nearly 4,000 U.S. fundraisers.

That growth rate was much lower than the year before, when median salaries increased 8 percent, rising from $67,100 in 2017.

However, more fundraisers in the new survey got pay hikes than in past years. Seventy-seven percent got a raise from 2018 to 2019, compared with 67 percent the year before. In all, 43 percent of respondents got salary increases of 1 to 3 percent in 2019, and 34 percent saw their salaries increase by more than 4 percent. Seventeen percent saw no change in their salary, and 6 percent reported reduced pay.

The gender pay gap still persists, though it has narrowed, the survey found. Men earned a median salary of $85,000 in 2019, 15 percent greater than the average salary paid to women. Fundraisers who chose nonbinary gender options earned even less, an average of $69,787, though only 15 respondents fell into this category.

The 15 percent male-female gender pay gap was smaller than the 17 percent disparity recorded in AFP’s 2019 compensation report.

The report found “negligible” differences in pay when it came to race. Those who identified as multiracial or reported a racial or ethnic heritage other than white had average salaries of $77,374 in 2019 compared with $74,000 for those who identified as white only, a difference of 4 percent. Seventeen percent of the survey’s respondents identified racially or ethnically as other than white. In 2018, people of color on average earned 1 percent more than their white peers, with 15 percent of respondents identifying racially or ethnically as something other than white.

The survey also asked several questions about job satisfaction. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the skills and knowledge of their fundraising staff, and 78 percent said they were satisfied with their president’s or executive director’s focus on fundraising. The area that scored the lowest for job satisfaction was board members’ engagement with fundraising — just 38 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with their involvement.

Sixty-two percent of fundraisers said they had thought about leaving their jobs in 2019, up from the 54 percent who said so in 2018.