According to the announcement made by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), an oversight and accreditation organization with more than 2,000 Christian nonprofit organization members. ECFA launched a powerful nonprofit executive salary comparison tool available on its website.
Available at no cost at www.ECFA.org (see ”Compensation Data” icon) the data can be highly valuable to churches and nonprofits looking for guidelines in salary setting and in seeking to comply with IRS regulations according to the ECFA president, Ken Behr. This is much more accurate than a random survey because the data comes from statements audited by certified public accountants, Behr said. “Our membership data shows the average salaries of the largest and best run evangelical organizations are certainly not excessive,” said Behr. “If anything, we continue to see that evangelical nonprofit boards are very conservative in setting salaries of pastors and other leaders.: Information concerning salary of ECFA is updated daily from annual data submitted by members to maintain their accreditation status. The information shows the average compensation of the top evangelical nonprofit pastors and other leaders in organizations with $50 million or more in annual revenue is approximately $211,000 annually. This is in comparison to more than $300,000 as reported in a survey of 250 of the largest nonprofit groups in the United States conducted by “The Chronicle of Philanthropy” newspaper. Regarding nonprofit sales the ECFA data may be the most reliable information anywhere said Behr. Verification is ongoing by field reviews conducted by ECFA CPAs, he said. This new data allows users to view comparative salary information across the United States. The data is also available by four geographic regions of the U.S. by type of organization, position, and revenue. Positions covered are the top position at each organization or church, for example the senior pastor, president, chief executive officer, executive director, chief financial officer, chief development officer or similar positions. “We are very excited about this new technology for two reasons,” Behr said “First, the salary search is a report of actual data comparison based on information submitted by our members and verified by our field review staff. Second, this tool is especially timely, as the Internal Revenue Service continues to aggressively audit nonprofits organizations for excessive compensation.” The IRS earlier this year released the results of its study of nonprofit compensation. The IRS reviewed three key factors, independent approval of a leader’s pay, proper documentation of the compensation and a determination of comparative compensation. “The ECFA salary search tool is designed to determine comparative compensation,” said Behr. In 1979 ECFA was founded and provides accreditation to evangelical Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with established standards for financial accountability, fund raising and board governance. The ECFA’s 2,000 plus members collectively receive more than $16 billion per year in income from their ministry efforts, and represent approximately $26 billion in assests.
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