Average fundraising salaries increased by 11 percent in the United States in 2017, even as 70 percent of professionals didn’t see increases large enough to keep up with inflation, according to the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) 2018 Compensation and Benefits Report

The mean (average) salary for all respondents in 2017 was $77,862, an increase of 11 percent from the 2016 average of $70,256

The top 25 percent of respondent fundraisers in 2017 earned more than $91,813, and the bottom 25 percent earned $50,000 or less. Both of those figures are increases from 2016.

The survey continued to find that men’s salaries overall were often higher than women’s, with overall average salaries earned by men ($92,544) much higher than those earned by women ($74,519).

“A significant overall gender gap continues to exist when it comes to salary, but we need to learn more,” said Tycely Williams, chair of AFP’s Women’s Impact Initiative. “We need to dig deeper into the data to look at how salary is affected by age, experience, education and other factors as fundraisers move into different phases of their career. As part of the Initiative, our plan is to use data from the last several Compensation and Benefits reports to analyze trends, identify where the gender gap is most pronounced and take long-term action to close the gap.”

The Report also found that the average salary of white fundraisers ($75,379) is 5 percent more than fundraisers of color ($71,327) in the United States.

“Race and salary is another issue we need to explore more deeply through our larger IDEA—Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access—work” said Geiger. “Plus, there are issues related to the intersectionality of race and gender as it pertains to compensation in our field. We need to better be able to serve fundraisers of color, and one way we’ll do that is by gathering more detailed data in next year’s survey.” The Report is available at the AFP Online Bookstore