Benchmark specialist roles
Match grants managers, program officers and portfolio leaders by scope, accountability and work performed—not job title alone.
Foundations & grantmakers
Foundation Compensation Consulting for Confident Pay Decisions
Foundation roles rarely fit neatly into a generic salary survey. JER HR Group helps grantmakers benchmark staff and executives, review salary structures, and present practical, evidence-based compensation recommendations to leadership and boards.
Discuss a Foundation Compensation StudyThe challenge
Foundation jobs are not always standard survey jobs.
A program officer's responsibilities can differ significantly between grantmakers. Investment, research, finance and operations roles may compete in different labor markets. Reliable decisions begin with defensible peer and job matches.
Choose suitable peers
Evaluate foundation type, grantmaking scale, location, size and relevant talent markets before interpreting compensation data.
Document the rationale
Provide clear comparability assumptions, alternatives and limitations for staff and executive-pay reviews.
Our approach
A foundation-specific compensation review, not a generic pay report.
01. Define the decisions
Identify the positions, current challenges, board timeline and compensation questions the study must answer.
02. Evaluate the market data
Compare the quality, recency and relevance of peer data and document where reliable job matches are limited.
03. Review pay structures
Analyze salary positioning, grades, pay ranges and internal alignment in the context of available budgets.
04. Support decisions
Summarize findings, options and implementation priorities in language leadership and boards can act on.
Engagement deliverables
Request the scope your foundation actually needs.
A study can focus on difficult-to-benchmark roles, executive compensation, or a full staff salary structure. Depending on the agreed engagement, outputs may include peer selection criteria, documented job matches, salary market findings, proposed pay ranges, executive comparability analysis and board presentation support.
Explore JER's nonprofit compensation study approach →Why JER HR Group
Nonprofit compensation expertise with attention to foundation realities.
JER HR Group's existing nonprofit compensation practice covers staff and executive compensation, benchmarking, pay structures and governance support. For foundations, we focus that experience on relevant roles, credible market evidence and actionable recommendations.
Explore Our Nonprofit Consulting ExperienceFoundation buyer questions
Answers to the questions foundation leaders ask when considering salary benchmarking, executive pay reviews and compensation studies.
1. How should we choose compensation peers for our foundation?+
Start with the jobs and labor markets being compared. Consider grantmaking model, responsibility, geography, organizational scale and the quality of available data. The study should explain why each peer group is relevant rather than simply listing organizations.
2. Can one review cover program staff and executive pay?+
Yes, if the engagement includes suitable benchmarking sources and methodology for both. Executive compensation may require additional board review, governance documentation and comparability analysis beyond staff salary benchmarking.
3. What if our grants team doesn't match standard survey job titles?+
Match responsibilities, level and decision authority before comparing salary figures. Where a reliable survey match is unavailable, the findings should describe the limitation and assess additional data rather than force a misleading comparison.
4. What should we prepare before the first consultation?+
An organization chart, current job descriptions, salary ranges if available, the compensation decisions you need to make and any board deadlines are a useful starting point. Arrange a secure method before sharing employee-level compensation information.
Let's talk about your foundation
Make your next compensation decision easier to explain.
Discuss salary benchmarking, executive compensation or a foundation-wide compensation study with JER HR Group.
Talk to a Compensation Consultant
