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HR, people & culture

Compensation and pay review for nonprofits

Signs you need a pay review

Pay feels arbitrary — there are unexplained discrepancies between people doing similar work, and you are losing good people because of it.

What you'll achieve

A transparent, fair, and defensible pay framework that supports retention, equity, and sustainable growth.

How a Nonprofit Builder consultant helps

  • Conduct a salary benchmarking exercise, review your current pay structure, facilitate a board discussion on pay philosophy, and design a grading and pay framework.

Key deliverables

  • Salary benchmarking report, pay equity analysis, proposed pay grades and bands, pay policy, implementation guidance for leadership and board.

From the resource library

Free tools and guides to get started

  • 5.1C064

    Human Resources (HR) Toolkit for Small and Medium Nonprofit Actors

    A 32-page toolkit for small and medium nonprofit, humanitarian and development organisations that want a formal system for managing people. It offers guidance, tips and checklists for writing or strengthening HR policies, plus a set of questions to review an existing HR framework, find gaps and set priority actions. It is written for HR staff, programme and operations teams, and finance and admin managers who handle basic HR.

    Start hereCurrentTool or templateFree
  • 5.1C062

    Equitable Compensation Playbook

    A playbook for HR and reward professionals in international NGOs who want to rethink pay policy. It aims to help organisations reduce pay inequality, including gaps between national and international staff, and make reward more transparent. It comes with a companion Excel worksheet, a video on how to use it and a podcast discussion. Organisations use it to review their current approach and plan changes to compensation policy and practice.

    CurrentKey manual or guideFree