Question

Topic: Career/Training

Proposal For Raise - Reasonable Salary Figure?

Posted by Anonymous on 8/13/2010 at 5:56 PM ET 250 Points
I live in the US. I am currently the sole employee (with newly promoted title of Executive Director from Program Coordinator) of a nonprofit tuition tax credit organization (we award tuition scholarships to students at private schools in our state). I do everything...from data input and processing of applications/donations to putting out new marketing materials and overall management of the entire program. I work from home, work when I want, and have almost complete freedom to run the program as I see fit. This gives me the opportunity to stay home with my 3 year old, which I appreciate very much. I have a Board of Directors and a committee I communicate with for ideas and opinions. It isn't a 40 hour/week job, but lately has been approximately 30 due to changes in the law. Once major changes are taken care of, it shouldn't be 30 hours a week on average, but might be somewhat close.

I currently am paid $18,000/year, which is a crime. I have been promised a bump in salary and asked to construct a proposal. I am having troubles arriving at an asking salary. There aren't many organizations like ours that has one employee who does everything and is the same size as ours. Sites like Salary.com tell me I should be making $400,000/year...well our organization doesn't have that kind of money. We withhold 8% of donations, which gives us approximately $80,000-$90,000 each year for all expenses.

Suggestions on a reasonable salary figure to suggest? Thank you for your help!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/13/2010 at 11:29 PM Member
    Two basic questions:
    1) If you were to quit, how much would they pay your replacement?
    2) How can you show your $ value to the organization (i.e., how many grants/donations/clients were you personally able to get in the past year)?
  • Posted by Ryan Rutan on 8/14/2010 at 7:59 AM Accepted
    In this economic climate, it is imperative to show a return on any kind of increased spending, to justify doing so.

    In our company, raises were frozen for two years, but there was a plan put into place for people in positions where there was a demonstrable connection to revenue. In your case, being the only producing employee, you have a chance to suggest something similar.

    Rather than ask for a raise based on the grounds that you deserve more (which does not address the issue that despite being worthy of the raise, there may not be additional funds to pay for it), I could suggest the following:

    Create a commission plan that gives you a % of donation revenues. This demonstrates two critical factors:

    1. You are willing to connect any additional personal gains to those of the organization, creating mutual benefit.
    2. The funds to pay for the "raise" are generated prior to the expenditure, guaranteeing solvency for the plan.

    You can insert various clauses to balance the deal saying that you take a certain % based on "new" benefactor donations, and explain what time period constitutes a new benefactor (ie new benefactor will be considered new for a period of 2 years, or 2 donations, etc), and a lower % on continued donations. Both are valid incentives for your company to provide you, as gaining new "business" and ensuring long term relationships with existing "clients" are key to any business.

    I hope this helps. I am happy to discuss further in private.

    Kind regards,

    Ryan

    Ryan Rutan
    Branding Brainiac
  • Posted on 8/18/2010 at 9:28 AM Author
    Thank you for all of your help. I found a website that helped a great deal in giving me a salary range...www.payscale.com. I have also attained the salaries amount of the Executive Directors in foundations like mine. Using that information I have arrived at a reasonable amount. Thanks agin.
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