For mission-driven organizations, competitive and equitable compensation is a cornerstone of attracting and retaining top talent. Our client, a multi-million-dollar nonprofit serving vulnerable youth and families, sought a comprehensive compensation analysis to evaluate how its pay structure aligned with market benchmarks. By partnering with Planneris, the organization aimed to surface actionable insights to strengthen pay equity, close critical gaps, and sustain high-performing teams.

Challenge

As a large nonprofit with 34 roles spanning seven job families and operations across multiple cities, the organization faced growing questions about the fairness and competitiveness of its compensation practices. Leadership needed a clear understanding of how pay compared to industry standards, where internal inequities existed, and which roles posed the greatest retention risk. They sought a strategy that would ensure fair pay, promote internal consistency, and reinforce the organization’s reputation as an employer of choice within the social services sector.

Collaborative Approach

Planneris partnered closely with the nonprofit to deliver a rigorous, data-driven compensation analysis, emphasizing collaboration and strategic insight throughout the engagement.

The work began with a comprehensive audit of existing compensation data to ensure accuracy and consistency across locations and job families. Each role was benchmarked against composite market averages using a blend of public and proprietary datasets, including Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Salary.com benchmarks, and sector-specific compensation sources.

Planneris applied a “Delta of Averages (%)” metric to quantify how far compensation for each role deviated from market benchmarks, flagging roles within ±2% as market-aligned. Roles were then grouped by job family and geography to identify patterns of underinvestment, pay compression, and regional disparity.

Working alongside organizational leadership, Planneris co-developed strategic recommendations tailored to the nonprofit’s operational and financial realities. These included a tiered pay adjustment plan, a merit-based compensation framework, and guidance on establishing more consistent pay bands across functions and regions.

Results

The compensation analysis surfaced transformative insights that enabled informed decision-making:

• 50% of roles exceeded market benchmarks, highlighting strategic overinvestment in leadership and program-critical positions
  
  
• 41% of roles fell below market, exposing retention risks within infrastructure and frontline care roles essential to daily operations
  
  
• Regional pay inequities for identical roles revealed opportunities for location-adjusted strategies to improve fairness and morale

Armed with these insights, the nonprofit is now positioned to implement targeted salary adjustments and align its compensation strategy with both market expectations and organizational values. These steps will strengthen retention, enhance talent attraction, and support the organization’s ability to advance its mission at scale.

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