Compensation & Benefits Survey Model - Center for Nonprofit Management

FAIRPAY: A New Way to Produce a Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Software for Your Community

“Thanks to FAIRPAY, the Greater Delaware Valley has, for the first time, comprehensive data on the wages and benefits received by members of our nonprofit sector.”

Laura Otten, Director, Nonprofit Center at La Salle University

FAIRPAY is a service of the Center for Nonprofit Management, in partnership with Bob Orser, The Nonprofit Doctor, and Rita Haronian, for the production of salary and benefits surveys in the nonprofit sector. With over fifty years of combined experience in conducting nonprofit salary and benefits surveys, we use our recently developed software application, along with a specially formatted questionnaire, to produce nonprofit salary and benefits surveys with accurate and detailed data. We can now work with local sponsoring organizations to produce a survey for your local community or constituency.

How does a FAIRPAY Survey help organizations in my community?

A salary and benefits survey produced with FAIRPAY helps organizations in your community:

Set fair salaries and benefits to attract and retain the best employees
Evaluate industry standards for compensation for a range of positions
Budget and plan the cost of adding new staff members
Analyze their own jobs and compensation
Stand up to the scrutiny of an increasingly skeptical public and avoid problems with the IRS
Compare their salaries and benefits with others in their community, not with organizations totally out of their local economic market.

How can FAIRPAY help my organization?

FAIRPAY enables your organization to:

Increase your visibility in your community
Collect data to inform funders, policy makers and other stakeholders
Generate a new source of revenue

What does a FAIRPAY survey analyze?

Over one hundred fifty positions are reported for the entire sample, with more details by:

Organization's annual operating budget size (up to 7 categories)
Organization's location (up to 6 categories)
Organization's field of service (up to 15 categories)
Number of employees in the organization (up to 9 categories)
Number of employees managed by person in position (up to 4 categories)

Specific data regarding incentive pay is also reported for each position, including eligibility for incentive pay and actual incentive pay given.

All category descriptions are customized to suit the community or association being surveyed. Additional categories can be added as an option.

Benefits and other policies are reported as well:

Paid time off (vacation, sick time, holidays, other)
Insurance benefits
Retirement benefits
Policies regarding compensation and employment practices
Executive Director/CEO perquisites

How do we work with you?

Once you sign up with us, we will:

Advise you on how to finance the survey, including sharing with you sample proposals you can customize to approach local funders
Help you to develop a pricing plan for subscribers and nonsubscribers. We will also share our own survey income/expense experience with you.

Regarding the actual production and distribution of the survey:

You simply enroll the participants. We can provide you with our own surveys' brochures (fax) copy and email text. We can also share our co-sponsorship structure and agreement letters with you.

We will:

Handle all matters relating to computer operations and the writing of the text of the report
Provide you with an electronic copy of a survey questionnaire customized for your community
Respond to any questions that arise as participants are completing the questionnaires
Collect the completed questionnaires from the participating agencies, who forward them electronically directly to us
Send you a camera-ready copy of the survey report (estimated 200 pages) and/or computer file not more than eight weeks after our receipt of the last questionnaire
Provide advice on how to market the survey, both to participants before publication and to the general nonprofit community after publication
Help you to design a workshop on how to use the survey report so that your local nonprofit organizations get the most possible benefit from the information.

How much will it cost for you to produce a FAIRPAY survey for us?

The cost for producing the survey depends upon the number of participants, as follows:

$7,500 for up to 100 participating organizations
$10,000 for up to 200 participating organizations
$12,500 for up to 300 participating organizations.

These prices reflect a special introductory rate and are paid in three installments.

Once these fees have been paid, your organization then owns the survey.

How can my organization finance a FAIRPAY survey?

Your income from a FAIRPAY survey could come from one or more of the following sources:

Full or partial sponsorship by a foundation, corporation or service provider in your community. Both of CNM’s surveys are partially sponsored by accounting firms. The 2005 Greater Delaware Wage and Benefits Survey was subsidized by a local foundation.
Fees from subscribing organizations
Sales of the survey to non-subscribers.

What is the first step?

Simply contact Bob Orser at 1-800-865-4109 or bob@nonprofitdoctor.com. He would be glad to send you a sample copy of one of our surveys for your review.

If you would prefer to do the Survey yourself

Even though the FAIRPAY software is user friendly, the computer operations and number crunching part of producing a survey is labor intensive and can require several months of work by a dedicated staff person. Our services make it possible for an organization to sponsor a survey with very little demand for staff time or technical resources. However, if you would prefer to produce the survey yourself, we have a leasing option available. Bob can explain that to you, too.

About FAIRPAY's developers

FAIRPAY is a service of the Center for Nonprofit Management, in partnership with Bob Orser, The Nonprofit Doctor, and Rita Haronian. The FAIRPAY program is based on a nonprofit survey model developed by CNM. The FAIRPAY survey tool was developed by CNM jointly with Bob Orser and Rita Haronian, both formerly of The Management Center (TMC) in San Francisco. CNM has conducted nonprofit compensation surveys since 1990. In 2005, the FAIRPAY software and methodology were used to produce CNM’s Northern and Southern California Compensation & Benefits Surveys. Bob and Rita are capitalizing on their more than twenty-five years’ experience in producing salary and benefits surveys, beginning with TMC’s Northern California Survey, first produced in 1978.

Using the FAIRPAY software, Rita recently completed work on the 167-page 2005 Greater Delaware Valley Wage and Benefits Survey, published by the Nonprofit Center at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The report features salary and benefits data from 189 nonprofits reporting on over 9,000 paid positions across the Delaware Valley (greater Philadelphia area). Rita has also designed customized applications for nonprofit surveys in Los Angeles, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Houston, Kansas City, Oregon and North Carolina.