2025 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Survey (GSB)

Since 1980, the Council's Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Survey has provided the sector with the most comprehensive data on staff composition and compensation in the United States. Grantmakers rely on this annual report to plan budgets, benchmark personnel policies and practices, determine salary levels for new and existing staff, and more.

The 2025 GSB Survey is open March to May 2025.

Key Dates

The 2025 GSB Survey is open as of March 6, 2025, and it closes in May 2025. The 2025 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report and Administrative and Program Expense Tables will be released in fall 2025.

The 2024 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report, Key Findings, and Board Compensation Tables were released October 15, 2024

What are the benefits of participation?

Participating in the GSB Survey helps the entire U.S. philanthropic sector: Grantmaking organizations across the country use GSB data every year to set salary, benefits, and board policies.

Additionally, participating in the GSB Survey entitles your organization to a complimentary copy of the full 2025 GSB Report and the 2025 GSB Administrative and Program Expense Tables, as well as access to the Council's dynamic online benchmarking tool in Benchmark Central that you can use to run deeper salary, benefits, and demographics comparisons by asset size, grants, geographic location, and grantmaker type.

How do I participate?

Council membership is not required to participate in the survey. You can designate one or more individuals from your team to represent your organization, and multiple individuals from the same organization can work on a submission simultaneously.

If your organization has participated in a previous GSB Survey, you can access the 2025 GSB Survey through Benchmark Central by logging in with your regular cof.org username and password.

If your organization has not participated in a GSB Survey before, please contact us at communications@cof.org with your foundation name and the name, title, and email address of your designated respondent(s) and we'll set up your account(s).

If you have issues accessing Benchmark Central or have any other questions, please contact us at communications@cof.org.