Female Fund Raisers Make Less Than Men

By Leah Kerkman

Women fund raisers in New England earn less than their male colleagues, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the Center for Gender in Organizations, at Simmons School of Management, in Boston, shows that female fund raisers earn about $19,000 less per year than their male counterparts.

In 2005, the average salary for women in the study was $67,271, which is 22 percent less than the $86,265 average salary for men.

The overall average salary for both men and women in fund-raising jobs was $70,607, with an average of 10 years of experience in fund raising.

The study was conducted for Women in Development of Greater Boston.

Of the 970 survey participants, 800 were female, and more than half lived in the Boston area. More than a third of all study participants worked at private colleges or universities.

The study found a striking pay gap among people who have the same job responsibilities.

More than 36 percent of the people in the survey described their positions as middle managers in fund-raising departments, with those women reporting an average salary of $65,546 and the men reporting average pay of $78,719.

Among other key findings of the survey:

• More men than women in the study worked at hospitals and private colleges and universities, where pay is typically higher. More women worked at arts and culture, environmental, and social-services charities.
• More women than men worked at organizations with smaller budgets, where pay is usually lower. Half of the women surveyed worked in organizations with budgets of less than $20-million, compared with 36 percent of men in the study.
• Women in the study were more likely than men to be dissatisfied with their salaries. Thirty percent of women were dissatisfied with their current salary, compared with only 15 percent of men. More than a quarter of all respondents were dissatisfied with their pay.

For more information on the study, go to the Center for Gender in Organizations Web site at http://www.simmons.edu/som/centers/cgo/. The information will also be available on the Web site of Women in Development of Greater Boston. Go to: http://www.widgb.org.