Detailed ranges
$75,000 and $150,000 thresholds
Use mutually exclusive ranges of $75,000 or less, $75,001–$150,000, and $150,001–$250,000.
Compensation by organization size
Compare nonprofit salaries by annual budget.
A CEO at a small community nonprofit and a CEO at a national organization may have very different responsibilities. Budget bands help keep financial scale visible instead of mixing every organization into one number.
Combined range
$250,000 or less
Review all three detailed small-organization ranges together in one combined benchmark.
Larger organizations
More than $250,000
Compare increasingly large organizations through the established budget ranges, including organizations above $50 million.
Why annual expenses are used as the budget measure
Public filings provide standardized financial fields that can support repeatable filters. Annual expenses are often used as an operating-scale proxy because they reflect the resources deployed during the year. Assets answer a different question and are available as a separate filter.
Keep the budget bands mutually exclusive
A record should belong to one budget band for a given report. Mutually exclusive ranges make counts and statistics easier to explain and prevent the same organization from appearing in several size categories within one comparison.
Budget is part of the peer definition—not the entire definition
A defensible peer group can also consider role, mission category, geography, organization type, assets, and reporting period. 990Search keeps those selected criteria visible in the finished report.
Frequently asked budget questions
Why compare nonprofit compensation by budget?
Annual expenses can be a useful indicator of operating scale. Organizations with very different resources and complexity may not be appropriate direct salary peers.
Does a larger budget always justify higher compensation?
No. Budget is one comparison factor. Role scope, mission, geography, workforce, revenue model, complexity, and other circumstances can also matter.
What happens when all budget ranges are selected?
990Search presents the available budget bands separately so the report does not disguise important size differences inside one combined number.