The Big Raise

You might pity the fundraising bosses at America’s largest nonprofits. Their pay has inched up only about 2.7 percent over the past five years, according to GuideStar data on groups with annual revenue of $50 million or more.

Yet averages can be deceiving. Plenty of top fundraisers are getting big raises. To gauge how many, The Chronicle analyzed the pay of 260 top development officers at nonprofits that raise $35 million or more from private sources; these are individuals for whom at least three years of compensation figures are available from tax filings by their organizations.

More than 60 percent of these fundraisers got raises of 10 percent or more at least once. Each year in the survey, at least one in five got a pay bump at least that big.

What caused the spikes?

Poachers

It’s the nonprofit CEO’s nightmare: The top development executive gets an offer for a new position — and a lot more money. “It happens all the time” and naturally leads to counteroffers, says Ronald Schiller, head of Aspen Leadership Group, a recruiting firm.

Some organizations try to be proactive about heading off poachers. Amy Purvis, chief development officer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has marched steadily up the pay ranks since 2010, with her compensation climbing 87 percent to $358,317 in 2015, the last year data is available.

A promotion helped fatten her check, but the museum has moved deliberately to protect what it considers a valuable asset. “I’ve known development directors at museums around the world, and Amy Purvis is simply extraordinary,” says director Gary Tinterow, a former longtime executive with the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mr. Tinterow’s board compensation committee bases pay for all executives on the pay of their peers at 10 large museums nationally. The goal: Ensure no one is underpaid. “I certainly don’t want to wait until somebody comes to me with an external offer and have to match it,” Mr. Tinterow says. “I would much rather they feel like they’re being recognized annually.”

The Robin Hood Foundation’s efforts to bring fundraising chief Krissy Sudano’s pay up to market rates has more than doubled her compensation, to $411,587, since 2010. The organization’s compensation analysis had found that her pay lagged well behind that of her peers at other New York organizations, including the Harlem Children’s Zone and the Central Park Conservancy.

Ambition Plus Opportunity

Some fundraisers have seized opportunities in the tight job market to rise rapidly in the ranks — and in pay. From 2010 to 2015, Elizabeth Hurley held three jobs and saw her pay more than triple, to $412,176. The moves took her from the Chicago Music Festival ($130,359 in 2010) to the Art Institute of Chicago ($293,889 in 2012) and New York’s Julliard School ($412,176 in 2015).

Ms. Hurley was recruited for each position, and money played a part in her decision, though “not exclusively,” she said in an email. Her responsibilities increased with each new organization; although she oversaw fundraising at the Art Institute, her portfolio at Julliard includes communications, publications, ticket sales, and more.

Sweeteners

Fundraising chiefs are increasingly joining the top ranks of leadership at big organizations, making them eligible for some of the same corporatelike benefits often awarded the CEO’s cabinet. In any given year, about 45 percent of fundraisers in The Chronicle survey received a bonus — a share only slightly less than for CEOs.

Campaign Fever

Campaigns frequently net bonuses for a fundraising chief. “They’re becoming more and more common,” says Mr. Schiller, often as a thank-you or as golden handcuffs to keep a fundraiser on the job.

Last year, Albert Checcio led the University of Southern California across the finish line of a $6 billion campaign — 18 months ahead of schedule. Since the effort started in 2010, he’s earned about $750,000 in incentive pay. A $350,000 bonus in 2014 pushed his total compensation above $1 million.

The university has extended its campaign and is counting on Mr. Checcio to stay at the helm for at least a few more years. In recent years, it began a performance-based deferred-compensation plan that could pay him as much as $1 million in 2018 if he’s still at USC. Asked about the arrangement, the university issued a statement saying, “Checcio’s leadership has set standards for university advancement” but declined to discuss details of the agreement.

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The Million-Dollar Club

Republicans in Congress took a swipe at nonprofit executive pay in the new tax-overhaul bill. It imposes a new tax on nonprofits with highly paid executives amounting to 21 percent of each executive’s pay exceeding $1 million annually.

The provision will affect hundreds of nonprofits, particularly universities, trade associations, hospitals, and research centers, where top executive pay often reaches seven figures.

But the salaries of a few fundraisers also could trigger the tax — notably, the pay of Anne McSweeney, a top fundraiser with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Three times since 2010, her annual compensation has topped $1 million. In 2015, the most recent year data is available from the Internal Revenue Service, her incentive pay alone reached almost $1.3 million — the biggest bonus paid by any of the more-than-500 organizations in the Chronicle analysis of fundraiser compensation from 2010 to 2015.

Since 2010, Ms. McSweeney has earned $5.7 million, with nearly 60 percent of her earnings coming in the form of bonuses. Memorial Sloan Kettering declined to discuss the compensation, but a spokeswoman said in an email that Ms. McSweeney has helped lead a multibillion-dollar fundraising effort “that has met unprecedented achievement.”

The Chronicle analysis found 11 instances since 2010 in which a fundraiser’s compensation topped $1 million. Here are the four from 2014 and 2015, the latest years available.