Diving into the Data: Staffing & Salaries

The second chapter of the Council’s full 2015 Grantmakers Salary and Benefits Report provides extensive data on staff and salaries. In it, we offer tables on everything from the size of responding foundations to the diversity and salaries of their full-time staff and the tenure and turnover of various staff members. Later chapters also feature extensive salary data, but this chapter focuses on CEOs and program officers in particular.

Get the Report

Members, remember that you can download the GSB for free.

You can also purchase the report from our store at cof.org/2015salary.

What You’ll Find

These tables are a tool you can use to benchmark your own organization’s practice against your peers. This is why each table breaks down data points by various factors (foundation type, asset size, staff size, etc.); we want to provide you with the details you need to find the report useful. Read Chapter 2 to explore:

• Tables breaking down the demographics of foundation staff in the year under study.
• Data on staff tenure and turnover within respondent organizations.
• Specialized data on salaries and salary growth for some key positions (namely CEO, CGO, Program Officer).

How to Use

Chapter 2 of the report is where the tables begin, and the table of contents at the beginning of the report is your best friend when it comes to locating specific tables. These tables can help you answer the questions you have regarding your own organization’s practices and how they compare to those of your peers. You’ll need to know your organization’s asset size, foundation type, and what census region you’re located in (Google "census region" and go to images; it’s an easy tool to find your census region.)

Data of Note

• Over 40 percent of CEOs have held the position for over 10 years.
• 25 percent of CEOs were promoted from within their organizations.
• The median program officer has held their position for three years.
• Almost half of all respondents reported no staff departures in 2014.

What's Next?

Come back and visit our blog in two weeks to dive into the next chapter on issues specific to foundation chief executive officers.