Compensation Analysis Study: Advancing Pay Equity for a Multi-Million-Dollar Nonprofit

For mission-driven organizations, competitive and equitable compensation is a cornerstone of attracting and retaining top talent. 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 uncover actionable insights to strengthen pay equity, close critical gaps, and enhance its ability to sustain high-performing teams.

Challenge

As a large nonprofit with 34 roles spanning 7 job families and operations across multiple cities, the organization faced growing questions about the fairness and competitiveness of its pay practices. Leadership needed a clear picture of how compensation compared to industry standards, where internal inequities existed, and which roles posed the greatest retention risks. They sought a strategy that would ensure fair pay, promote internal consistency, and reinforce their reputation as an employer of choice in the social services sector.

Collaborative Approach

Planneris partnered with the nonprofit to deliver a data-driven compensation analysis, leveraging collaboration and strategic insights at every stage:

• Conducted a full audit of existing pay data to ensure accuracy across locations and job families.

• Benchmarked each role against composite market averages, using a blend of public and proprietary datasets, including BLS, Salary.com, and sector-specific sources.

• Applied a “Delta of Averages (%)” metric to quantify how far compensation for each role was above or below market, flagging roles within ±2% as market-aligned.

• Grouped roles by job family and location to identify patterns of underinvestment, pay compression, and regional disparities.

Together with organizational leadership, we co-developed strategic recommendations tailored to the nonprofit’s unique challenges. This included a tiered pay adjustment plan, a merit-based compensation framework, and insights into building more consistent pay bands across functions and regions.

Results

The analysis surfaced transformative insights:

• 50% of roles exceeded market benchmarks, highlighting strategic overinvestment in leadership and program-critical positions.

• 41% of roles fell below market, exposing retention risks in 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 not only strengthen retention but also enhance their ability to attract top talent and advance their mission at scale.