Nonprofit Executive Director and CEO Salary by Budget Size

When a board sets or reviews its executive director’s pay, one of the first things members want to know is what leaders of similar organizations earn. Size is the natural place to start, because pay rises as budgets grow. A full-time executive director or CEO at an organization with a budget under $250K is paid a median of $45,641, while at organizations with budgets of $50M or more, the median is $465,034.

The table below shows the median and the middle half of pay at nine budget sizes, from IRS Form 990 filings. These national figures are a starting point, because pay also varies with where an organization is and the kind of work it does. Before settling on a salary, a board should look at organizations in its own area and field. The figures come from PeerSet, which lets you narrow the same search to your state or metro area and your sector. After the table, this page explains what the figures count and how to read them.

Executive director and CEO pay by budget size

Budget here means the organization’s total expenses for the year. The median is the middle salary in a band, so half the executive directors in it are paid more and half are paid less. The 25th to 75th percentile column shows the range the middle half fall in, so a quarter are paid below it and a quarter above.

Full-time CEOs and executive directors (30 or more hours a week), every sector, state and organization type, tax years 2024–2025. IRS data through September 2026. Read from PeerSet on October 25, 2026. Select a budget band to open the same search in the tool. Form 990 filings typically lag 12–24 months after fiscal year end. Figures come from filings that organizations reported themselves; we have not verified them and do not guarantee they are accurate, complete or current. Informational only; not legal, tax or compensation advice.

What the table counts

Before you set your executive’s pay beside the table, check what its figures include. They’re Column D of Form 990 Part VII, reportable compensation from the organization (Form 990 instructions), which is the salary, bonuses and other taxable pay that the filing organization paid directly. Pay from related organizations goes in Column E, and deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits go in Column F. So compare these figures with your executive’s salary and bonus, not with a total that includes retirement contributions and benefits. The guide to reading pay on Form 990 walks through all three columns.

The same care applies when you set another source’s figures beside these, because sources add up pay in different ways. Candid’s Nonprofit Compensation Report, for example, adds Columns D, E and F together, so for the same people its figures are at least as high as these. The comparison of compensation data sources lists how each source defines pay.

Who is counted

Executive director and CEO are two titles for the same job, the top staff officer who reports to the board, so PeerSet counts both under one role, CEO / Executive Director. The search behind the table uses PeerSet’s Strict title match, which counts only chief-executive titles, such as CEO, Executive Director or President. An Executive Director of Development heads a department, so that title isn’t in the table. The table also counts only leaders who report 30 or more hours a week on the return. As the methodology explains, records with reportable compensation below $10,000 are excluded.

What budget size does to pay

Pay rises at every step up the table, by between 23% and 29% a step from the $250K–$500K band to the $25M–$50M band. The steps at either end are bigger. The median rises 55% out of the smallest band and 61% into the top band, which has no upper limit.

Boards often ask what share of the budget the executive director’s pay should be. No rule sets one, but as a rough guide, the $500K–$1M band’s median of $88,627 would be 18% of a $500K budget and 8.9% of a $1M one. The $10M–$25M band’s median of $224,033 would be 2.2% of a $10M budget and 0.9% of a $25M one. The share falls as organizations grow, because pay grows more slowly than the budget.

Reading the range

The median is the easiest figure to quote, but the range around it tells a board more, because executives at organizations of the same size are paid quite differently. In the $1M–$2.5M band, which has the most organizations (24,040), half of the executive directors are paid between $86,329 and $152,162.

Where an executive belongs in a range like that depends on things the table can’t show. A board can pay above the median for a long tenure, or for a job bigger than the budget suggests. If it sets pay outside the range of its comparability data, the regulation requires it to record the basis for that decision in order to keep the IRS’s presumption that the pay is reasonable (Treas. Reg. §53.4958-6(c)(3)(ii)).

Small nonprofits

At organizations with budgets under $250K, half of full-time executive directors are paid between $28,846 and $65,000. Boards of organizations that size, and of some larger ones, can also use a simpler IRS test when they gather comparability data.

An organization with annual gross receipts, including contributions, of less than $1 million has appropriate data if it has “data on compensation paid by three comparable organizations in the same or similar communities for similar services” (Treas. Reg. §53.4958-6(c)(2)(ii)). It may average its gross receipts over the three prior years. It must also add in the gross receipts of any entity it controls or that controls it, including a for-profit subsidiary, under paragraph (c)(2)(iii).

Because the table’s bands use total expenses, not gross receipts, an organization in the $500K–$1M band may or may not qualify, so check your gross receipts before relying on the rule. The guide to the rebuttable presumption explains the rest of the process.

How these figures were read

Each band is one search in PeerSet, read on October 25, 2026, with the tool’s default tax years, the newest complete year (2024) and 2025, whose returns are still arriving. The tool updates as new IRS data arrives, so a band’s link can show newer figures than this page. The methodology explains the rules every figure follows.

Your own peer set

The regulation’s list of comparability data starts with pay at similarly situated organizations for comparable positions. It also includes the availability of similar services in your area (Treas. Reg. §53.4958-6(c)(2)(i)). A peer set chosen by your budget, sector and location comes closer to that list than a national table.

The step-by-step guide to setting nonprofit executive compensation covers the whole decision, from choosing comparable organizations to the board’s vote. If you use PeerSet, each budget band in the table opens its search in the tool, where you can download the narrowed results as a Benchmark Summary PDF for the board.

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