Fact check: What is the average salary of non-profit CEOs in the United States?

1. Why headline averages hide the real story about nonprofit pay

Sector-wide headlines that claim a single “average” salary collapse diverse organizations into one number and produce misleading impressions. Candid’s 2024/2025 reporting repeatedly shows median pay near $132,000 for nonprofit CEOs overall, but that median masks wide variation by mission area and budget size: small community groups and faith-based organizations report much lower CEO pay, while research institutes and large charities pay substantially more ^{[1] [2]}. Reports that focus on specific subsectors — especially the hospital subsector — show dramatically higher compensation levels, which pull means upward if studies use averages rather than medians ^[3].

2. Recent, high-quality measures: medians from Candid and what they mean

The most consistent, comparable measure across many studies is the median, which limits distortion from extreme outliers. Candid’s 2024/2025 Nonprofit Compensation Reports put the median CEO compensation at about $132,000 for 2022 data and provide mission-specific medians showing large ranges (e.g., roughly $68,958 for religion-related orgs versus $202,490 for science and technology research) ^{[1] [2]}. Because Candid’s data are broadly sampled across thousands of nonprofits and reported recently (2024–2025), the $132k median is the best sector-wide snapshot, with the important caveat that it reflects a median, not a mean.

3. When pay looks enormous: hospitals and large national charities

Some reputable studies focusing on nonprofit hospitals and very large organizations report executive pay in the high six and seven figures. A 2025 Rice University analysis found inflation-adjusted hospital CEO pay rising from about $1 million to $1.3 million between 2012 and 2019, showing growth concentrated among CEOs who expanded size and revenues ^[3]. Separate 2025 hiring-trend reports cite average CEO/Executive Director compensation benchmarks approaching the hundreds of thousands to around $800,000 in some contexts, reflecting inclusion of large health systems and national charities ^[4]. These figures reflect a narrower, high-pay slice of the sector.

4. Why studies disagree: methodological choices that change the number

Differences across reports arise from definitions (CEO vs. Executive Director), measures (median vs. mean), sample frames (all nonprofits vs. hospitals), and timing. Studies using means will be pulled higher by a small number of high-paid hospital or university-affiliated executives. Studies limited to organizations above certain budget thresholds will report higher “averages.” Some industry compensation surveys emphasize base pay only, while others include bonuses and retirement benefits; these choices materially affect reported totals ^{[5] [6] [4]}. Always match the report’s method to your question.

5. Reconciling the range: practical numbers to use depending on your question

If you need a single sector-wide figure for a general audience, use the median: about $132,000 (Candid, 2022 data reported 2024–25), and state that it is a median that excludes the outsized pay in hospitals and some national organizations ^{[1] [2]}. If you’re benchmarking for a specific mission or budget size, use mission-specific medians (religion ~$69k; science/tech research ~$202k) or budget-based benchmarks. For hospital systems or very large nonprofits, use subsector-specific studies that report seven-figure ranges ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

6. What’s missing and questions to ask when citing a figure

Public reporting often omits detailed breakdowns of benefits, deferred compensation, and how CEO pay correlates with organizational complexity or performance, creating gaps when comparing across sources. Ask whether the figure is median or mean, what compensation elements are included, whether hospitals or university-affiliated nonprofits are in the sample, and what year the compensation refers to. These clarifications prevent misinterpretation when a $132k median is contrasted with seven-figure hospital pay; both are accurate but apply to different slices of the sector ^{[7] [2] [3]}.

Conclusion: For broad statements about nonprofit CEO pay cite the $132,000 median with mission-level caveats, and use subsector reports for hospital or large-organization benchmarks. Explicitly state the metric (median vs. mean) and sample frame so readers understand why different credible sources can report very different “averages” ^{[1] [2] [3]}.