2024 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report: Key Findings

The 2024 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits (GSB) Key Findings is an illustrated, three-page document highlighting important trends shaping the philanthropic sector. Also available as a free PDF, the 2024 GSB Key Findings is just a small fraction of the expansive dataset available in the 2024 GSB Report, which reflects information from 1,006 grantmakers for 11,380 full-time staff members. Council members can download the full 2024 GSB Report for free, and nonmembers can purchase the full report for $549.

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Inflation Cools, But Larger Salary Increases Remain

Median Salary Increases

Staff Turnover Normalizing

After turnover jumped in 2023 amidst the Great Resignation, mean rates, total organizations reporting departures, and median rates all dropped back in 2024 to around 2022 numbers:

Mean Turnover Rate

2024 2023 2022

53%

of responsive foundations reported staff departures in 2023.

57% in 2023
52% in 2022

Staffs, Executives Continue Diversifying

People of color account for:

33.5%

of full-time grantmaking staff in 2024.

32.7% in 2023
30.6% in 2022
29.0% in 2021

17.1%

of foundation CEOs were people of color, up slightly from:

14.9% in 2023
13.6% in 2022
12.0% in 2021

Women account for:

75.8%

of full-time grantmaking staff in 2024.

76.2% in 2023
76.7% in 2022

62.6%

of foundation CEOs identified as female, up slightly from

61.0% in 2023
61.8% in 2022

Gender Pay Gap Has Grown Slightly

2024

The median salary for female CEOs was:

The median salary for male CEOs was:

*or about 83.5% of the median salary reported for male CEOs.

2023

The median salary for female CEOs was:

The median salary for male CEOs was:

*or about 85.3% of the median salary reported for male CEOs.

Real-Dollar Salaries Down for Community Foundation Staff, Private Foundation CEOs

Despite two years of higher reported salary increases, inflation-adjusted salaries for non-CEO staff at community foundations are lower than they were in 2020.

All Community Foundation Staff Salary Growth

12/8% nominal growth 2020 - 2024 | 3.1% nominal average annual change | -6.0% real growth 2020 - 2024 | -1.5% real average annual change

Community Foundation CEO Salary Growth

23.8% nominal growth 2020 - 2024 | 5.5% nominal average annual change | 3.2% real growth 2020 - 2024 | 0.8% real average annual change

For private foundations, the opposite is true: In real dollars, reported median salaries are higher than they were in 2020 for all roles except CEOs and Program Officers.