Persisting Pay Inequities Revealed in PEAK’s New Salary Report

No matter how a foundation or philanthropic organization is structured, someone is responsible for grants management. This critical role requires knowledge in finance, operations, technology, knowledge management, and strategy. Besides these technical skills, grants managers also need soft skills as they are often the point of contact for grantees, and it is important to build relationships. Grants management professionals both sit at a crossroads of skills and hold internal and external viewpoints of an organization.  

PEAK Grantmaking’s 2023 Grants Professionals Salary Report shows that despite this integral role and the many skills needed for success, compensation inequities are still present for grants management professionals. This resource compels organizations to look internally at their staff composition and salary practices. In keeping with the Tie Practices to Values Principle—which calls organizations to align what they name as their values with their actions—funders with a commitment to equity and transparency should examine their internal practices to recognize the value of grants professionals. This includes both acknowledging that grantmaking staff are integral to realizing the organization’s values and strategy and providing staff with development opportunities that aid them in aligning practices with values.   

The 2023 Grants Professionals Salary Report examines four dimensions of the grantmaking profession: the organizations, the people, the work, and the workplace. Here are a few key findings about the people within the profession. 

Salary ranges are wide and not on par with other staff  

Salaries can vary due to many factors such as education level, organization type, tenure within the organization, and grantmaking budget.  

For the most part, organizations with larger grantmaking budgets have higher average salaries. This is not surprising, as organizations with larger annual grantmaking budgets usually have larger operating budgets. Based on our experience, we also presume that this range correlates with the complexity and volume of grants. We see that average salaries tend to increase as the level of responsibility increases across job bands.  

While grants management professional salaries varied greatly, one trend that was consistent across all organization types is that the average salaries for non-grants management staff are higher than those for grants management staff across all job bands. On average, respondents whose primary job function is not grants management earn approximately 30 percent more than executives whose primary responsibilities are in grants management, indicating that advocacy work needs to be done for grants management work to be valued—at least monetarily—the same as other functional areas.  

Salary differences across race and ethnicity 

Our previous salary report, published in 2020, focused in part on demographic differences among grants management professionals. Comparing our current data to 2020, there is a positive trend with increased diversity across all job bands. While the senior executive job band stands out for being the most racially and ethnically diverse, it is still 74 percent of this band is still comprised of people who identify as white, Caucasian, or European. In  the internal/business support job band, 47 percent of respondents identify as white, Caucasian, or European. Clearly, disparities persist as decision-making authority increases, reinforcing a sector-wide trend where diversity decreases at senior levels. Overall, while there have been strides in enhancing diversity, our data underscores the ongoing need for concerted efforts to improve racial and ethnic representation at all levels—especially in the higher-ranking job bands. Funders committed to driving equity should use this data to examine their organizations and start conversations about how inequity shows up, and work to include diverse perspectives throughout the grant decision-making process. 

Gender pay disparity across job bands  

Even though grants management is clearly a female-dominated occupation—84 percent of respondents identify as female—men are paid higher salaries across all job bands, apart from the internal/business support band. This disparity is most stark within the executive job band. This echoes recent research around the concept of the glass escalator: because men are often associated with leadership, they encounter fewer barriers to these high-paying positions and attain them faster than their female peers.

Moreover, these findings underscore a persistent trend: while overall salary parity has improved since 2020, disparities have widened significantly in higher level job bands. For example, the 2020 Grants Management Salary Report found that male respondents earned $7,000 more than female respondents. However, by 2023, average salaries for male and female respondents in that job band had reached parity. Yet, in higher-level roles like professional and supervisory/management positions, the pay gap has increased. For instance, women in professional roles currently earn $91,392 on average, compared to $107,045 for men—a gap of $15,653. In 2020, this gap was significantly smaller at $1,597.  

Turn insight into action 

Thanks to the participation of our survey respondents representing more than 1,000 organizations, we had the largest dataset in the history of PEAK’s survey to derive insights into the responsibilities of grants management professionals, workplace practices, and pay inequities within the philanthropic sector. The data shared above is a small fraction of the analysis available within the report, and there are many dimensions where you can dig deeper. We encourage you to use the 2023 Grants Professional Salary Report to start conversations within your organization and across your network about compensation and workplace practices.  

This report should be shared with your leadership and talent management leads to evaluate how your organization currently approaches employee compensation. This data can help organizations compare themselves with others within the grants management profession and provide the opportunity to reflect on and evaluate how equitable current practices are and whether they are a barrier to attracting and retaining talent that can help an organization achieve its goals.  

In addition, sharing this report with your network can amplify the need for grants management salary equity. Beyond your organization’s internal learning, sharing this report with your network can amplify and advocate for the need for pay equity and potentially lead to increased salary transparency across the sector and more equitable compensation for grants management professionals.  

Click here to download PEAK’s 2023 Grants Professionals Salary Report. This resource is complimentary to Organization Members and available for a fee to others.