Julie Masson, CCO for Nonprofits
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About the Survey
Who answered?
I limited the survey to W-2 employees working in-house at U.S. nonprofits. Contractors, consultants, and agency staff were screened out. After removing duplicate submissions, 231 valid responses remain. This survey was conducted in May and June of 2026.
How to read the salary figures
Respondents reported their salaries as ranges rather than exact figures. This report includes both the median salary band (the range the middle respondent falls into) and an estimated average salary, calculated from the midpoint of each range to compare groups.
A note on comparing sectors
Bigger-budget organizations pay more. A sector with large organizations looks generous even when it isn't. So before ranking sectors, I asked what each one would be expected to pay given the size of the nonprofits in it, then compared that to what it actually pays.
Report Sections Include:
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Salary by organization budget
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The pay ladder
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Years of experience
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Team and management
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Salary by sector
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Benefits and work arrangements
Who conducted the survey?
Hi, I'm Julie.
I've worked in nonprofit communications since 2008 and led the comms function at two different nonprofits, most recently as a CCO. In all that time I never once knew whether I was being paid fairly, and nobody else did either, because the data didn't readily exist. So I built a survey and put it in front of the field. 231 in-house nonprofit comms professionals across 42 states told me what they earn, and this report is what they said. Today I ​coach nonprofit comms leaders​ to move from order-taker to strategic partner, which is how you grow your role and your pay along with it.
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