Thank you to everyone who participated in the King County Nonprofit Employment Surveys! 501 Commons and the King County Veterans, Seniors & Human Services Levy (VSHSL) appreciate your effort in entering wage and benefits data and distributing the Employee Engagement Survey to your staff. The next step is to synthesize the information and prepare the public database that will become available on the 501 Commons website later this fall.

The Wage and Benefits Survey seeks information about employee compensation. The Employee Engagement Survey asks staff questions about compensation, diversity, communications, and other factors contributing to job satisfaction. We believe the results will shed light on what we can do to attract people to enter and remain in nonprofit careers.

There is no cost to participate in the surveys. VSHSL funding allows the aggregate results to be provided to nonprofits as a free community resource. Individual responses will remain confidential. Only aggregate data will be made public. Read more about the two surveys:

The Wage and Benefits Survey

Someone familiar with employee compensation and benefits (usually the executive director, HR staff, or finance manager) should provide pay levels for each job at your organization and information about the benefits you offer. After the survey closes, and data has been collected and synthesized, you will be able to access compensation information for 150-200 job titles from nonprofits across King County and review these results by subsector and budget size if enough nonprofits participate.

The time required to input your wage and benefit information varies depending on how many positions you have. Please download a PDF copy so you can see in advance what preparation is necessary for you. Generally, we've found that organizations with 1-20 employees can finish in an hour or less, larger organizations need a couple of hours, and very large organizations (45+ employees) may need to calendar a few hours to do this work.

It is important that organizations of all sizes and types participate in these surveys so that the wage and benefit information is robust and reliable. Organizations outside of King County may benefit from this information as well, but will need to consider differential pay levels in their county.

Visit the Third Sector New England Salary Survey to see the kind of information we will be able to provide if enough nonprofits participate. Below are examples from the New England study of types of information you can expect to find later this year:

Note: These numbers do not reflect the compensation information for King County nonprofits.

Here's what Janet Nazy, the executive director of Wallingford Community Senior Center, has to say about what she plans to do with the survey results:

“As an Executive Director, you have a very busy schedule. Instead of having to take time to do research on my own, the Wage and Benefits survey is an invaluable resource. It [will allow] me to ensure WCSC is competitive on wages and benefits... Our employees are our biggest asset. I want to ensure we are treating them fairly and the Wage and Benefits analysis helps keep us informed of where the market is and where we might need to improve so we can retain our employees and stay competitive," Janet says.

Employee Engagement Survey

All nonprofit employees in King County are invited to share their experience working in the nonprofit sector. Questions on the survey include your satisfaction with compensation, the support and direction you received from your supervisor, the information provided by leadership, if the culture is inclusive, and more.

The survey is available in multiple languages, and all responses are confidential. Please note that only part-time and full-time paid staff are eligible to take this survey. Volunteers, board members, interns, and contractors cannot participate.

The Employee Engagement Survey closes at midnight on July 9. It should take about 15-20 minutes to complete. All employee responses are anonymous. We will report the data using a proven methodology that protects the identity of respondents based on job titles or other identifying factors.

An organization's executive can request an Employee Engagement survey report comparing their aggregated employee responses to the overall responses. To protect employee anonymity, we will not provide an organizational report if fewer than five employees participate from an organization.

How do I stay informed?

If you'd like to receive email updates about the King County Nonprofit Employment Survey project, please fill out this form.

Questions or concerns? Read the Frequently Asked Questions for guidance. If you still don’t see what you’re looking for, please email Jenny Lundqvist at jenny@501commons.org.