Nonprofit Director of Communications Salary Benchmarks
See how Director of Communications pay compares across U.S. nonprofits — by budget size, geography, and sector. Built from IRS Form 990 filings across 181,829 nonprofits.
How much does a nonprofit Director of Communications make?
Across 181,829 U.S. nonprofits' IRS Form 990 filings, median Director of Communications pay ranges from $12,338 at organizations with budgets of Under $250K to $274,351 at organizations with budgets of $50M+. At a mid-size nonprofit ($1M – $2.5M budget), the median is $120,396. Budget size is the single strongest driver of nonprofit pay — use the calculator below to benchmark against organizations your size, in your state and cause area.
What you get
Free, interactive nonprofit pay benchmarks — refreshed every year.
Built from the public IRS Form 990 Part VII filings, refreshed as the IRS publishes new batches.
Director of Communications salary questions, answered
How much does a nonprofit Director of Communications make?+
For nonprofits with $1M – $2.5M budgets, the median Director of Communications total compensation is $120,396, based on IRS Form 990 filings. Pay rises with budget size: small organizations typically pay well below this figure and large institutions well above it.
What determines Director of Communications pay at a nonprofit?+
Budget size explains most of the variation — a Director of Communications at a $50M organization typically earns several times the pay at a $500K organization. Geography (state and metro cost-of-labor) and sector (health and higher-ed pay more than human services and arts) account for most of the rest. Board-approved comparability data, like these 990 benchmarks, is what the IRS expects nonprofits to document when setting executive pay.
Where does this Director of Communications salary data come from?+
Every figure comes from public IRS Form 990 filings — the annual returns nonprofits file with compensation for officers, directors, and key employees. Kindora aggregates 605,089 pay records across 181,829 organizations and suppresses any cell with fewer than 5 filings.
How we built these benchmarks
- Source: IRS Form 990 Part VII filings (the public disclosure of nonprofit officer pay).
- Positions classified by an AI model into 14 standard nonprofit leadership roles.
- Peer cells require at least 5 filings; smaller samples are suppressed.
- Updated annually as IRS publishes new 990 batches. Latest data: May 2026.
Ready to compare more?
The free public calculator covers all 50 states and 8 cause areas — and lets you layer them — in English or Spanish, no login required. A free account adds saved benchmarks and the side-by-side comparison studio. Paid plans add metro-area and sub-sector drill-downs, board-ready PDF exports, and the API/MCP integration.