U.S. Nonprofit CEO Salary by State:
2024 Benchmarks
Nonprofit CEO salaries vary dramatically by state — from a median of $358,590 in Washington D.C. to $139,849 in Arizona. Based on IRS Form 990 data across 35 states, here is what nonprofit Chief Executive Officers actually earn by location.
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Highest Median (DC)
$358,590
National CEO Median
$207,708
Lowest Median (AZ)
$139,849
States with Data
35 states
Data covers nonprofit Chief Executive Officers only. For Executive Director benchmarks, see the Executive Director Salary by State insight. All data from IRS Form 990 filings, tax year 2024.
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Nonprofit CEO Salary by State
Median, 25th, and 75th percentile total compensation for nonprofit Chief Executive Officers by state. One record per organization (highest-compensated CEO). States with fewer than 100 records excluded. Sourced from IRS Form 990 Part VII, tax year 2024.
| State | Median | 25th Pctl | 75th Pctl | # Orgs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington D.C. | $358,590 | $231,164 | $616,810 | 720 |
| New York | $328,850 | $183,830 | $656,013 | 1,634 |
| Virginia | $302,197 | $153,560 | $512,780 | 655 |
| Massachusetts | $251,208 | $169,760 | $394,167 | 490 |
| Illinois | $251,079 | $137,153 | $422,211 | 679 |
| Minnesota | $248,549 | $140,404 | $395,009 | 413 |
| Maryland | $229,364 | $122,890 | $479,159 | 353 |
| Washington | $223,802 | $136,608 | $366,860 | 439 |
| New Jersey | $218,668 | $131,106 | $352,581 | 361 |
| Michigan | $217,414 | $136,632 | $359,494 | 458 |
| Montana | $216,347 | $145,063 | $443,770 | 107 |
| Ohio | $212,142 | $118,989 | $407,369 | 760 |
| Wisconsin | $209,148 | $134,421 | $363,150 | 400 |
| Louisiana | $206,377 | $120,800 | $325,160 | 173 |
| Kansas | $199,621 | $115,474 | $298,825 | 192 |
| Colorado | $198,678 | $131,098 | $303,051 | 480 |
| Pennsylvania | $195,927 | $121,654 | $321,958 | 606 |
| Texas | $193,831 | $110,569 | $346,043 | 1,117 |
| Connecticut | $192,474 | $143,092 | $297,820 | 166 |
| Kentucky | $190,042 | $115,385 | $289,592 | 173 |
| Iowa | $190,423 | $124,104 | $280,678 | 227 |
| North Carolina | $189,176 | $98,470 | $322,870 | 377 |
| Missouri | $185,401 | $108,646 | $294,585 | 297 |
| Oregon | $184,014 | $117,922 | $317,072 | 187 |
| Nebraska | $182,407 | $126,143 | $323,159 | 131 |
| Indiana | $175,000 | $110,128 | $333,742 | 436 |
| Arkansas | $174,935 | $109,114 | $299,359 | 108 |
| Florida | $173,245 | $90,661 | $305,242 | 782 |
| Alabama | $172,974 | $87,214 | $312,533 | 134 |
| Oklahoma | $167,482 | $90,646 | $314,929 | 151 |
| Tennessee | $166,560 | $100,661 | $284,292 | 341 |
| California | $161,421 | $65,000 | $305,656 | 2,525 |
| South Carolina | $155,578 | $97,828 | $273,519 | 175 |
| Georgia | $150,000 | $64,016 | $294,044 | 496 |
| Arizona | $139,849 | $78,000 | $260,559 | 336 |
| Total | 17,079 |
Source: IRS Form 990 electronically filed returns, Tax year 2024. States with 100+ CEO records shown.. 35 categories shown.
Get more data →Detailed State Pages
Deep-dive into CEO salary benchmarks for individual states, with breakdowns by budget size and nonprofit sector.
We are building detailed salary benchmark pages for each state. These pages include CEO compensation breakdowns by budget tier and NTEE sector, along with state-specific analysis. Click a linked state name in the table above, or use the links below.
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Why Nonprofit CEO Salaries Vary So Much by State
Geography is one of the strongest predictors of nonprofit executive pay.
Nonprofit CEO salaries don't follow a single national standard — they're shaped by local labor markets, cost of living, the concentration of large organizations in a region, and the mix of subsectors active in each state. A nonprofit CEO in Washington D.C. earns more than twice the median of a CEO in Arizona, even controlling for organization type.
Sector Concentration
D.C., Virginia, and Maryland have high concentrations of national advocacy organizations, trade associations, and government-adjacent nonprofits that command higher pay than community-based or social service organizations.
Cost of Living
Northeast and West Coast states (NY, MA, CT, WA, CA) have high costs of living that push compensation upward. However, cost-adjusted pay gaps are narrower than nominal figures suggest.
Org Size Distribution
States like California and New York have large numbers of both very large and very small nonprofits — which widens the salary range and can pull the median in different directions.
Mission Type
Healthcare and research-heavy states (MA, MN, OH) show elevated compensation due to hospital systems and research institutions filing 990s as nonprofits alongside smaller community orgs.
D.C. is an Outlier
Washington D.C.'s median nonprofit CEO salary of $358,590 is 73% higher than the national median. This is driven by the high concentration of national associations, policy organizations, and advocacy groups headquartered there — not typical community nonprofits.
How to Use State CEO Salary Data for Compensation Decisions
State benchmarks are a starting point, not a final answer.
IRS Section 4958 requires nonprofit boards to establish executive compensation using 'comparability data' — and geography is a required dimension of that comparison. State-level benchmarks from Form 990 data satisfy this requirement when combined with budget size and sector filters.
Start with your state
Use the median and interquartile range for your state as your baseline range.
Filter by budget size
A $2M nonprofit in Texas should not benchmark against all Texas CEOs — filter to organizations of similar budget. Median CEO pay for Texas orgs under $5M is substantially lower than the all-org figure.
Consider your sector
Healthcare and research nonprofits skew compensation upward. Education, arts, and human services organizations trend lower.
Document everything
Boards need a written record of the comparability data used. Form 990-based state benchmarks with percentile ranges provide a defensible foundation.
Safe Harbor Protection
The IRS safe harbor under Reg. 53.4958-6 protects boards that use a qualified independent body, obtain appropriate comparability data, and document their process. State-level 990 benchmarks are explicitly recognized as valid comparability data.
How This Data Is Calculated
Transparency in methodology builds trust.
Sample Size
35 states, 18,185 organizations
Data Source
IRS Form 990 electronically filed returns
Period
Tax year 2024
One record per organization (highest-compensated CEO) with normalized_title = 'Chief Executive Officer' and total_compensation > 0. States with 100+ records included. Values are total compensation (reportable comp from org + other compensation). Stored in cents, divided by 100 for display.
Title Normalization
'CEO', 'Chief Exec Officer', and similar variants from Form 990 Part VII are standardized to 'Chief Executive Officer' during data processing.
One Record Per Organization
Where an organization reports multiple CEO records (e.g., co-CEOs or mid-year transitions), we use the highest-compensated individual. This deduplication ensures each organization is counted once and prevents double-counting from inflating state medians.
Compensation Metric
Total compensation includes reportable compensation from the organization plus other compensation (benefits, deferred comp, nontaxable fringe). This matches what the IRS evaluates under Section 4958 and what boards need for comparability purposes.
State Assignment
State is assigned based on the organization's primary address as reported on the 990. Organizations may have programs in multiple states but are counted in their filing state.
Minimum Sample Threshold
States with fewer than 100 CEO records are excluded to ensure percentile statistics are statistically meaningful.
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