The average salary for U.S. fundraisers was $96,449 in 2024, roughly the same as year, as men in the field continue to make more than women, according to the latest research from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
The 2025 Compensation and Benefits Study for U.S. and Canada was based on responses from 2,844 fundraisers. While the average salary fell $172 year over year, the median salary, which looks at the midpoint of salaries, jumped from $83,000 in 2023 to $87,672 in 2024, a 5.6 percent increase.
The median number is more indicative of the health of fundraising salaries, says Colton Strawser, CEO of the eponymous consulting firm that conducted the research for AFP.
“The average is a little lower, but I think the median in this case is more meaningful,” Strawser says. “The median has increased, meaning there’s some consistency within pay across the sector rather than having extreme outliers of people making very little and people making a lot.”
The survey found that 75.9 percent of respondents plan to stay at their organizations in 2025, which is similar to the previous year’s survey data. Why people are so keen to stay is tougher to ferret out, says Strawser.
Looking at it in the most positive light, he says, fundraisers’ salaries have increased over time, and many may feel that their organizations are investing in them. “If we want to look at it the other way, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the economy,” Strawser says. “Some people are just buckling down and not wanting to do a career change or shift to a different organization. They’re playing it safe.”
While women dominate fundraising, they continue to earn less than men. The median salary for men was $99,900, roughly 13 percent higher than the median salary for women, $88,300. This gap is about half the size of the 25 percent median pay gap in last year’s survey — $80,000 for women compared to $100,000 for men.
Strawser calls the pay gap a “persistent problem.” The report notes that even when controlling for other factors — including more women taking time off to raise children than men — women with comparable education and experience at organizations of similar budget sizes earn 10 percent less than men.
This year’s survey changed course and did a deeper dive into employee benefits. Part of the reason for that, Strawser says, is the perception that nonprofits offer both low pay and bad benefits. However, the data didn’t bear that out.
“The sector is making a move towards embracing offering benefits to folks that work there,” he says.
In terms of health care, 94.2 respondents had an employer that paid either all of their health-care insurance costs (20.6 percent) or split the cost with employees (73.6 percent). The remainder required employees to pay all the cost (1.9 percent) or did not offer health-care coverage (3.9 percent). Ninety percent of U.S. respondents said their employers offered some type of retirement plan.
Other benefits for U.S. workers included payment of professional dues (78.2 percent), professional development (65.5 percent), cell phone (40.6 percent), volunteer time (38.4 percent), paid parental leave (27.6 percent), and educational expenses (27.2 percent).
The survey also asked about holidays and paid time off. There are 14 federal holidays observed in the U.S., and on average, nonprofit workers got 7.5 of those days. When it came to paid time off, U.S. workers in the survey received an average of 17 days. This was less than in Canada, where PTO averaged 20.7 days, and nonprofits workers surveyed averaged 8.23 days off, out of Canada’s 10 federal holidays.
