Salary increases for chief executives at the nation's largest charities and foundations kept pace with inflation in 2011 but are unlikely to see big gains in 2012, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

Based on a hundred and thirty-two responses, the Chronicle's annual survey of executive compensation and benefits at the largest (though not necessarily highest-paying) U.S. nonprofits found that the median pay increase for top executives in 2011 was 3.8 percent, compared to 2.7 percent in 2010, while the median salary was of $429,512, down from $475,192 in 2010. According to the Chronicle, with federal and state budget cuts continuing to squeeze nonprofit revenue growth, top executives can expect salary increases of between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent in 2012-13.

The Chronicle also reported that twenty CEOs made at least $1 million in 2010 — the majority of them hospital and museum executives — up from fifteen in 2009. And it noted that while many CEOs took a pay cut or accepted a salary freeze in the wake of the 2008-09 recession, those days appear to be over." It's a competitive marketplace, and the chief executive is in the board's direct line of sight," said Brian Vogel, a compensation consultant. "If the board is going to give an increase to anyone, they're going to give it to the CEO."

Still, while even the highest-paid nonprofit CEOs earn far less than the executives of companies in the S&P 500, several states, including Florida, New Jersey, and New York, have launched efforts to cap nonprofit executive salaries and/or limit the percentage of state funds that can be used to compensate executives. "To assume that you're going to become a millionaire or a multimillionaire running a public charity that's supposed to provide a public benefit is just absurd as far as we're concerned," Ken Berger, the head of Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog group, told Bloomberg News.

For a list of nonprofit executives who earned at least $1 million in 2010, visit the Chronicle of Philanthropy Web site.