The National Council of Nonprofits advises nonprofit organizations to take the following steps to help ensure that executive compensation isn’t excessive:
- Get your board of directors involved in creating executive compensation packages.
- Compare your organization’s compensation to those of executives at similarly sized organizations in your area that perform similar types of work.
- Document your compensation review process, including the names of everyone who participated in the compensation committee and the specific data they reviewed.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor publishes Occupational Compensation Surveys that can give you a good idea of total compensation packages that similar nonprofits have offered in your area. Visit Overview of BLS Wage Data by Area and Occupation. You can also look at online sites like Monster.com and Indeed.com, as well as local newspaper classifieds.