We analyzed the reported pay of 68,386 nonprofit chief executives across 24 industries — straight from their organizations' IRS Form 990 filings. The typical one earns $130,124. The highest earns 237 times that.
Nonprofit doesn't mean no profit — at least not for the people running the largest organizations. But between the volunteer executive director of a neighborhood food pantry and the $30-million hospital-system CEO lies an enormous, rarely-mapped middle. This report maps it, using the one place every tax-exempt organization must disclose what it pays its leaders: the Form 990.
Every number here comes from real filings, not a survey. We looked at organizations with at least $250,000 in annual revenue — real staffed nonprofits, not shell filings — and identified each one's top executive, whether titled "CEO" or "Executive Director." Here is what the data says.
Half of all nonprofit CEOs earn less than $130,124 in total reported compensation. A quarter earn under $77,667. The sector's mega-salaries are real — but they are the exception, not the rule.
Within health care, the median CEO of a >$250M institution earns 12 times what a small-org CEO makes. Organization size predicts pay far more powerfully than which cause an organization serves.
Nine of the ten highest-paid nonprofit executives run hospital systems. The tenth runs a Fortune-500-scale insurer that happens to be a nonprofit. This is where the eye-popping numbers live.
Among the 57,970 CEOs we could track across two years, median pay rose 4.9% — comfortably ahead of inflation. Every single industry posted a raise, from +3.9% to +6.1%.
Credibility on a topic like executive pay depends entirely on the data behind it. Here is exactly what we measured, and how.
A note on the numbers: compensation is reported as of each organization's fiscal year and can include deferred pay recognized that year, which is why some single-year figures for departing executives run unusually high. Throughout, we lead with the median rather than the average, because a handful of hospital-system packages pull averages far above what a typical nonprofit leader earns.
The single most important fact about nonprofit CEO pay is how skewed it is. The median chief executive earns $130,124. The average is $207,889 — 60% higher — because a small number of enormous packages drag the mean upward. The gap between those two numbers is the whole story of nonprofit compensation.
Distribution of total CEO compensation across 68,386 nonprofits. Even the 90th percentile — $378,668 — is a fraction of the top of the market.
Only 1 in 10 nonprofit CEOs earns more than $379,000. The million-dollar packages that make headlines sit far out on a very long tail.
Ranked by median CEO pay, the sectors that top the table aren't the ones most people would guess. "Public & Societal Benefit" leads — a category that includes credit unions, mutual insurers, and large member associations. Science, medical research, and health care follow. At the other end, the CEOs of arts, animal-welfare, housing, and religious organizations earn the least.
Median total CEO compensation by NTEE industry category, 2024. Bars scaled to the highest-paying sector. n = number of organizations in each category.
Cross-industry rankings hide the real driver of nonprofit pay: organization size. Read down any column in the table below and the pattern is identical everywhere — pay roughly doubles at every jump in budget. A small human-services executive earns around $60,500; run a $250M-plus human-services organization and the median is $529,612. The cause barely changes the multiplier.
| Industry | Under $500K | $500K–$2M | $2M–$10M | $10M–$50M | $50M–$250M | Over $250M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health Care | $64,940 | $95,989 | $163,832 | $256,319 | $403,079 | $818,087 |
| Community Development | $80,000 | $126,464 | $218,462 | $374,766 | $622,377 | $1,633,938 |
| Education | $67,782 | $97,840 | $160,560 | $225,000 | $363,511 | $572,289 |
| Human Services | $60,500 | $86,400 | $135,220 | $221,898 | $373,713 | $529,612 |
| Philanthropy | $60,000 | $95,273 | $152,553 | $269,845 | $423,704 | $509,979 |
| Arts & Culture | $64,000 | $94,348 | $171,207 | $324,771 | $678,731 | — |
Median CEO compensation by organization revenue band. Cells shaded by pay level. The gradient runs the same direction in every sector — proof that size, not mission, is the dominant lever.
At the very top, the nonprofit label starts to feel like a technicality. The ten highest-paid chief executives in the country's tax-exempt sector earned between $14 million and $31 million each in a single filing year. Nine run hospital and health systems; the exception, Thrivent's CEO, leads a Fortune-500-scale financial-services organization chartered as a nonprofit.
| # | Chief executive | Organization | Sector | Total pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Skogsbergh | Advocate Health (IL / NC) | Health Care | $30,862,679 |
| 2 | Steven J. Corwin | NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (NY) | Health Care | $26,271,976 |
| 3 | Eugene A. Woods | Advocate Health / Wake Forest Baptist (NC) | Health Care | $25,781,279 |
| 4 | Teresa Rasmussen | Thrivent Financial for Lutherans (MN) | Financial / Mutual | $23,314,953 |
| 5 | Teresa Campbell | San Diego County Credit Union (CA) | Financial / Mutual | $18,921,604 |
| 6 | Philip O. Ozuah | Montefiore Einstein (NY) | Health Care | $16,690,037 |
| 7 | Javon Bea | Mercy Health System (WI) | Health Care | $16,336,153 |
| 8 | Ernie Sadau | CHRISTUS Health (TX) | Health Care | $14,656,684 |
| 9 | Joseph R. Impicciche | Ascension Health Alliance (MO) | Health Care | $14,086,474 |
| 10 | Robert C. Garrett | Hackensack Meridian Health (NJ) | Health Care | $13,541,590 |
Total reported compensation, tax year 2024. Executives appearing on multiple affiliated-entity filings are shown once, at their highest reported package. Figures include deferred compensation recognized in-year.
Tracking the 57,970 executives who held the top job in both years, median compensation rose 4.9% — ahead of inflation. Remarkably, the raise was near-universal: every one of the 24 industries posted a median increase, clustered tightly between 3.9% and 6.1%. Public-safety and public-benefit leaders saw the largest bumps; religious and international-affairs executives the smallest.
Median year-over-year change in CEO pay by industry, 2023 → 2024. Selected sectors shown; all 24 posted gains.
Washington, D.C. stands alone. The median nonprofit CEO there earns $228,635 — 76% above the national median — a reflection of the trade associations, advocacy groups, and national organizations that headquarter in the capital. After D.C., the coastal states lead: California, Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York all cluster around $150,000. At the bottom, CEOs in the Mountain West and Puerto Rico earn closer to the sector's floor.
Median CEO compensation by state (states with 50+ qualifying organizations). D.C. leads the nation by a wide margin.
For the typical nonprofit CEO, reported pay is mostly straightforward salary. On average, base reportable compensation accounts for roughly 87% of the total, with the remaining 13% covering bonuses, retirement contributions, and other reportable benefits. That balance shifts dramatically at the top: the largest packages are heavy with deferred compensation and retention incentives that vest in a single year, which is why a departing hospital-system CEO can post a number that dwarfs their annual salary.
The gap between a nonprofit's median and its highest-paid executive is the gap between a mission and an institution. 990iQ was built to measure both.
This report was assembled in minutes from the same data 990iQ puts at your fingertips: executive compensation, peer benchmarks, grants, and financials for more than 2 million U.S. nonprofits. Look up any organization in this report — or benchmark your own — and see the full picture.