While the pay gap between female and male nonprofit CEOs is slowly declining, with female CEOs gaining 6 cents to the dollar since 2011, the median compensation of female CEOs remains lower than that of male CEOs at organizations of all sizes, a report released by Candid finds. 

The 2023 Nonprofit Compensation Report (5,693 pages, PDF) draws exclusively from data reported on IRS Forms 990 and 990-EZ. The 23rd edition of the annual report reviews key employee compensation from more than 120,000 tax-exempt organizations for fiscal year 2021 and finds that, from 2011 to 2021, the percentage of female CEOs grew in all budget groups. However, female representation declines as organization size increases. According to the report, women represent the majority of CEOs at smaller organizations, but they represent less than one-third of CEOs at the largest organizations.

“We’re seeing the gender pay gap shrink for nonprofit organizations with smaller budgets, which is encouraging,” Candid senior data services manager Reina Mukai told Philanthropy News Digest. “But for nonprofits with the biggest budgets, the gap is actually increasing. This is a trend to watch, particularly from an equity perspective.”

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