2016 COLORADO NONPROFIT PREVIEW SALARY & BENEFITS SURVEY Sponsored by
The 2016 Colorado Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Survey is based on data submitted by 537 participating organizations reporting on 7,147 employees across 100 positions. Thank you to all the nonprofits who anonymously submitted their salary and benefit data through an online survey conducted from January to March, 2016. The result is this publication: a snapshot of nonprofit compensation in early 2016. In 1996, the Colorado Nonprofit Association (then CANPO) first released a salary and benefit report specific to nonprofits in Colorado. Today, that report has grown into a comprehensive biennial resource which helps nonprofits create fair compensation packages, recruit and retain great employees, and manage expenses effectively. This report is divided into two main sections: Benefits and Salaries. The Benefits section details insurance, leave time, and other benefits offered by Colorado nonprofits. Use this section to compare your benefits programs with those of other organizations and to design a competitive package to attract and retain highly qualified employees. In this section, you will also find information on general compensation topics salary increases and bonuses/incentive pay as well as data on how organizations use internships. The Salaries section provides compensation data for about 100 different positions found in nonprofit organizations. For each position, salary data are shown as low, medium and high range figures (25 th, 50 th, and 75 th percentiles), in addition to averages. Data are also analyzed by budget, geographic region, and focus of service. This report also includes data on the minimum level of experience and education required for each position. Use the Salaries section to review salaries of existing positions, set salaries for new positions, and create budgets. 1
Statistics 4 Why Are Some Salary Figures Blank? 4 Matching Job Roles & Titles 4 Combining Salaries from Two or More Positions 5 Calculating a Weighted Average 5 Data Collection 6 Data Validity 6 Confidentiality 7 Health Insurance 9 Health Insurance Premiums 10 Healthcare Benefits 11 Dental Insurance 12 Life & Disability Insurance 12 Employer Contributions 14 Combined PTO 15 Vacation Time 16 Health Time 16 Unused Leave Time 17 Other Paid Time Off 17 2
Executive 24 Finance & Accounting 28 Human Resources & Volunteer Management 33 Administrative Support 37 Facilities Management 41 Technology 46 Fundraising & Development 51 Marketing & Communications 58 Legal, Policy, & Advocacy 61 Research & Evaluation 67 Programs: General 68 Healthcare 72 Mental Health 80 Housing & Food 87 Education 91 Arts & Culture 97 Animal-Related 98 Retail & Other 100 3
For each position, you will see an average salary, as well as salaries at the 25th, 50th, and 75 th percentiles. 25th percentile: The point at which 25% of the responses are below and 75% are above. 50th percentile: The point at which 50% of the responses are below and 50% are above. This figure is the same as the median. 75th percentile: The point at which 75% of the responses are below and 25% are above. An average can be more heavily affected by a few very high or very low values within a data set. The median or 50 th percentile is often a more accurate figure to use than the average because it s a more reliable representation of the middle of a data set. Use the 25 th and 75 th percentile figures when you want to set a salary at something other than the median, such as: When setting and negotiating salaries for employees with above-average qualifications, consider the 75 th percentile figure. Conversely, you may use the 25 th percentile to set salaries for employees who are new to a role or who have less than the typical level of qualifications. When creating predefined salary ranges (low, starting salary to high or maximum salary) for positions. When there are four or fewer responses for a specific salary level, only the average is shown. When there are at least five responses, both the average and the 50th percentile are shown. The 25th and 75th percentile salaries are shown only when there are six or more responses. Some salary data sections, such as compensation for a position by budget size, geographic region or focus of service, have been omitted because insufficient data exist to report compensation for at least two categories. Nonprofits have an incredible variety of staff roles, positions and job responsibilities! It would be impossible to capture and then analyze salary data for the full diversity of nonprofit positions in the real world. Instead, this publication intentionally uses a simplified set of broadly-defined job roles and titles. Survey participants are asked to choose from a list of pre-defined positions and identify the ones that most closely match positions at their organizations. To use this publication effectively, you should do the same. For positions that are specific to your agency's work or mission: 1. Look in the mission-specific salary sections of this publication (Healthcare, Mental Health, Food & Housing, etc.) 2. If you can t find a specific position in a mission-specific section, check out the Programs category to see if these generic program-related positions are an appropriate match. 3. Unfortunately, some nonprofits have positions that just aren t comparable to anything in this publication. (Examples may include Animal Behaviorist, Wardrobe/Costume Designer, or Athletics Coach.) If we re missing a position you d like to see in the 2018 survey, please visit www.coloradononprofits.org to contact us and to let us know! 4
For a position at your agency that includes job responsibilities from two or more positions in this publication, there are several ways you can set a salary (or salary range) for one position by using salary data from multiple positions in this report: 1. Does one role require more experience or more specialized qualifications than the other(s)? To recruit and retain highly qualified employees, you may decide to use salary data from just the highest-paying position in this publication, even if the position at your organization includes other duties as well. 2. To combine salaries from two or more positions, the simplest solution is to calculate the average of those salaries from this publication. 3. Calculate a weighted average for a position that consists of multiple roles in unequal parts. Let s calculate an appropriate salary for Jennifer. (Jennifer is a hypothetical nonprofit employee, not a real person.) Her title at her organization is Volunteer Manager, but describing her real-world job responsibilities in terms of the positions and job descriptions in this publication, we estimate that in an average year, 50% of Jennifer s time is spent working as a Volunteer Coordinator, 25% as a Program Assistant, and 25% as a Grant Writer. % of Jennifer s Time Volunteer Coordinator Program Assistant Grant Writer These percents are the weights. You can use as many positions and weights as you need, but the combined weights must always add up to 100%. In this case, 50% + 25% + 25% = 100%. Next, we need to change the percents into decimals. You probably learned about decimals in math class, but it s okay if you ve forgotten what they are! Just divide each weight by 100%. Weight 50% = (decimal) Now we need the salaries we re going to use for each of these positions. (For this example, we ll just use the overall medians, or 50th percentile salaries, for each position. You can find them in the Salaries section of this report.) Salary Multiply each set of salaries and weights (in decimal format) together. Now you have a set of weighted salaries. Add them together, and you re done! Weighted Average 5
Survey data were collected via an online survey instrument from January through March, 2016. Requests for participation were sent via email to nonprofit members and other contacts of the Colorado Nonprofit Association. As an incentive, survey participants may receive a 50% discount on the purchase of this publication. In March, 2016, we reviewed the collected survey responses. We identified potential gaps, such as a relative lack of responses from organizations in a particular budget range, geographic area, or focus of service. We then sent targeted requests for participation to Colorado Nonprofit Association members in the identified categories. Our goal for the Salary & Benefits Survey is to produce the most comprehensive report possible by collecting data from as many nonprofit employers as possible. To encourage participation, we chose to deviate from two common survey practices: Required responses: in this survey instrument, there are no questions which require a response. If a respondent were unsure about a particular question, the survey instrument allowed that question to be skipped, rather than forcing the respondent to choose between entering a potentially meaningless answer, or abandoning the survey altogether. Required formats: this survey instrument generally did not require open-ended responses to be in a specific format (such as a number). Multiple-choice checkboxes or drop-down menus were used for questions in which it was necessary for all valid responses to belong to a predefined group, such as an organization s focus of service or a specific job title. We identified invalid data based on response format (such as a text response to a numeric question) and by searching for outliers at both high and low ends of responses to each question. Some of the original responses have been edited where appropriate, at Colorado Nonprofit Association s discretion, for the purposes of consistency, correction, or use in calculations. Some examples of these edits include Converting text responses to numeric formats so that calculations and analyses could be performed, such as changing 1.2 million to 1,200,000, or converting a response of immediately [months] to 0 [months]. Ensuring consistency for responses in the form of percentages. For questions such as What percent of insurance premium does the organization pay? some responses are entered as 50[%] while others are 0.50[%]. Where the intended response is clear in the context of the question 50% vs. 5000% or 0.5% responses were edited to ensure a consistent scale. Converting numeric ranges to single numeric responses so that calculations could be performed, such as converting a response of 20% - 30% to 25%. In these cases, the single numeric response was calculated as the average of the top and bottom of the range given. Correcting outliers in cases where the intended response is obvious, such as when an hourly pay rate was accidentally entered into the field for annual salary or vice versa. 6
Outlier responses were identified and examined on a question-by-question basis. Generally, outlier data were presumed valid and used in the analysis, but some exceptions to this practice include Outlier data which were clearly invalid but for which the intended response was evident; these responses were edited and the corrected versions used in the analysis. (See examples of data edits, above.) Outlier data which were apparently invalid and without any evident intended response, such as pay rates below the legal minimum wage. These data points were discarded. Survey responses are entirely confidential. Colorado Nonprofit Association maintains a secure online collection instrument, performs data analysis, and prepares the final report. Individual responses are never shared outside the Association. Survey responses are shared only in aggregate, according to the analysis guidelines described in this publication. No identifying information is required from organizations completing the survey. 7
This year s survey is based on responses from 537 participating organizations. Nearly half (48%) of participating organizations have annual budgets of less than $1 million; about 15% of respondents have annual budgets of $5 million or more. Budget Size Count A. Less than $500,000 141 B. $500k - $1m 103 C. $1m - $2.5m 117 D. $2.5m - $5m 70 E. $5m - $10m 34 F. $10m+ 42 Unknown 30 Geographic Region Count Colorado Springs/Pueblo 45 Eastern Plains 9 Larimer/Weld 33 Metropolitan Denver 357 Northwest 43 Southwest 19 Western Slope 31 Because participants were able to choose more than one option to describe their organization s focus of service, the responses here add up to more than 100%. 8
Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, President... 24 Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer, President (continued)... 25 Associate Director, Assistant Director, Executive Vice President... 26 Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Operations... 27 Finance Director, Chief Financial Officer, Controller... 28 Operations Manager, Business Manager... 29 Accountant... 30 Bookkeeper... 31 Accounting Clerk... 32 Human Resources Director, Vice President of Human Resources... 33 Human Resources Assistant... 34 Director of Volunteer Services... 35 Volunteer Coordinator... 36 Office Manager... 37 Executive Assistant, Executive Secretary... 38 Administrative Assistant... 39 Receptionist... 40 Buildings and Grounds Supervisor... 41 Property Manager, Site Manager... 42 Janitor, Custodian... 43 Repair Technician... 44 Security Guard... 45 IT Director... 46 Computer Systems Manager... 47 Programmer, Developer... 48 Technical Support... 50
Vice President of Development... 51 Development Director... 52 Director of Major Gifts... 53 Development Officer... 54 Development Associate... 55 Grant Writer... 56 Special Events Manager... 57 Director of Communications... 58 Marketing Associate... 59 Art Director, Graphic Designer... 60 Public Policy Director, Government Relations Manager, Lobbyist... 61 Community Organizer... 62 Policy Advocate... 63 Attorney, Lawyer... 64 Legal Assistant, Paralegal... 65 Legal Advocate, Court Advocate... 66 Data Analyst... 67 Program Director... 68 Program Manager... 69 Program Coordinator... 70 Program Assistant... 71 Doctor... 72 Physician s Assistant... 73 Director of Nursing... 74 Nursing Supervisor... 74 Registered Nurse (RN)... 75 Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)... 76
Certified Nursing Assistant... 77 Intake Specialist... 78 Dentist... 79 Dental Assistant... 79 Psychologist... 80 Case Supervisor... 80 Licensed Clinical Social Worker... 81 Social Worker, Case Manager... 82 Counselor (e.g., Treatment Counselor, Vocational Counselor)... 83 Direct Services Advocate... 84 Navigator, Peer Navigator... 85 Outreach Coordinator, Outreach Director... 86 Special Services Aide... 86 Food Service Director, Kitchen Supervisor... 87 Cook, Head Cook... 88 Prep Cook, Food Service Worker... 89 Shelter Director, House Manager... 90 Residential Treatment Worker... 90 Director of Education... 91 Community Educator... 92 ECE Teacher, Day Care Teacher... 93 Teacher, Trainer, Educator... 94 Teacher Aide... 95 Librarian... 96 Production Manager, Company Manager... 97 Artistic Director... 97 Technical Director... 97 Conductor... 97
Ticketing Manager... 97 Ticketing Staff... 97 Veterinarian... 98 Veterinarian Assistant... 99 Kennel Technician... 99 Animal Adoption Counselor... 99 Store Manager... 100 Cashier... 101 Driver... 102
2016 Colorado Nonprofi t Association 789 Sherman St Ste 240 Denver, CO 80203 (303) 832-5710 (800) 333-6554 info@coloradononprofi ts.org ColoradoNonprofits.org Partner of ColoradoCollaborative.org Front cover photos (left to right) Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Project Angel Heart, Girls Inc of Metro Denver, Via Mobility Services, Rocky Mountain Raptor Program; Back cover photos (left to right) Denver Urban Gardens, Colorado Farm to Table, Community Cycles, Clíníca Tepeya, Theatre Aspen