AFP Launches the 2026 Compensation and Benefits Survey: Your Voice Shapes the Future of Fundraising Workplaces

For more than 25 years, AFP’s annual Compensation and Benefits Survey has served as the fundraising sector’s most comprehensive resource for understanding salary trends, benefits, and workplace practices. As the profession continues to evolve — both in who makes up our workforce and in how we work — your participation is essential to ensuring this year’s survey reflects the realities, challenges, and opportunities fundraisers are experiencing today.

Each year, thousands of AFP members across the U.S. and Canada contribute to this report, helping nonprofit leaders benchmark salaries, strengthen benefits packages, and advance pay equity within their organizations. The 2025 study (available exclusively to AFP members) revealed continued shifts in compensation, persistent gender pay disparities, and growing emphasis on holistic benefits. In 2026, we’re building on that momentum.

Why Your Participation Matters

The fundraising profession is in a moment of transition. Flat average salaries in 2024, increased attention to fair compensation, and heightened expectations around work-life balance and flexibility all highlight how critical it is to monitor trends over time. Your response helps ensure the data guiding HR decisions, board planning, and sector-wide advocacy is accurate, inclusive, and actionable.

The more fundraisers who participate — across job levels, regions, causes, organizational sizes, identities, and experience levels — the more representative and powerful our findings become.

What’s New (and What We’re Watching) in 2026

Last year brought several major updates, many of which we continue to refine. This year’s survey maintains those improvements while focusing more deeply on how benefits are evolving in the face of rising costs and shifting workforce expectations.

Insurance Coverage and Cost-Sharing
In response to rapidly rising healthcare and insurance costs, we again ask not only whether organizations offer medical insurance, but also whether they contribute financially, or if employees shoulder the entire cost. Tracking this year-over-year will give professionals and nonprofit leaders clearer visibility into how benefits are changing and where competitive gaps may be widening.

The Importance of Benefits in Hiring and Retention
The 2025 results revealed that benefits — from health insurance and retirement plans to mental health days and flexible work arrangements — are increasingly influential in job searches. With nearly one in five fundraisers reporting they recently looked for new roles (largely due to compensation concerns), understanding which benefits matter most is essential for nonprofits aiming to retain talent.

Bonus Structures and Performance Incentives
We continue refining questions around bonus structures to better understand how organizations approach performance incentives. These insights help inform fair, ethical, and sustainable compensation planning across the sector.

A Tool for Equity, Strategy & Professional Growth

Your participation helps AFP generate the data that powers:

• Pay Equity Advocacy: Identifying and addressing persistent disparities such as the gender pay gap highlighted in last year’s results.
• Organization-Level Decision Making: Helping CEOs, HR teams, and boards benchmark salaries and build competitive compensation packages.
• Career Advancement for Fundraisers: Equipping professionals with data to advocate for fair pay, negotiate opportunities, and understand their market value.
• Sector-Wide Planning: Strengthening the nonprofit field by promoting transparency, consistency, and equitable practices.

Take the 2026 Survey

If you are a fundraising professional in the U.S. or Canada, please take a few minutes to share your experience. When completing the survey, be sure to include your name and email at the end so we can remove you from future reminders.

U.S. Survey
Canada Survey
The deadline to complete the survey is February 27. 

Thank you in advance for contributing to this essential research. Your insights help build stronger, fairer, and more supportive workplaces for fundraisers everywhere, advancing not only compensation transparency, but the health and sustainability of our entire profession.