In today’s competitive professional landscape, one of the best things you can do for your career trajectory is keep a pulse on industry standards around compensation. Recognizing the value that this type of benchmarking can provide, Apra is pleased to share its 2024 Salary Survey is now live.

The survey — by prospect development professionals for prospect development professionals — is available online through April 24. Members and nonmembers are encouraged to participate, in an effort to help gather data from a wide pool of professionals across the field. The results will be available this summer, free to Apra members and for purchase to nonmembers, with learning and engagement opportunities along the way to help the community understanding survey findings.  

While the survey is offered every three years, the 2024 edition comes at a particularly interesting point in time. “The last Salary Survey was conducted in the spring of 2021, as the nonprofit sector was still adjusting from the pandemic. At that time, we did not know the longer-term effects on salaries, job security and work modality,” Sarah Daly, director of prospect development at Southern Methodist University, says. Daly is a member of Apra’s Salary Survey Working Group, which helped guide the development of this year’s survey.

“We’ve added questions to examine the impact of this shift on the prospect development community,” Daly says. “We’re also continuing to examine pay inequities in the profession, a trend that was first identified in the 2018 survey.”

New this year are revised demographic questions, to better align with Apra’s commitment to equity and inclusion. “As part of this commitment, the Apra Board of Directors prioritized the inclusion of a member of the Apra Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Justice and Access (DEIBJA) Committee in the salary survey working group,” Brandi Buckler, working group member and principal gifts research analyst at The Nature Conservancy, says. “In addition to expanding questions around work arrangements and workplace changes through the pandemic, Apra recognizes the importance of including a DEIBJA perspective in the design and feedback process for this important industry tool.”

Amended demographic questions focus on identity, disability, work-life balance and workplace culture. “We have also expanded several of our questions to reflect the growing presence of international respondents and organizations in our field,” Buckler says. “If there are areas in which respondents do not see themselves represented within the survey, we encourage them to reach out so that these suggestions may be addressed in future iterations of the survey.”

Survey responses are anonymous, in an effort to encourage as much participation as possible. “As someone who has leveraged the data from the last iteration of this salary survey in my own career, I am excited to continue building a strong baseline data set that better represents the span and diversity of our industry!” Buckler says.

As Buckler suggests, the Salary Survey is a tool that can help prospect development professionals advocate for themselves and their teams. Jennifer Moody, vice president, research at Gobel Group, is just one Apra member who has used this tool to advance her own career. “The Apra Salary Survey has been an invaluable resource for me when it came to negotiating raises and setting fair compensation packages. Armed with comprehensive data from the survey, I have been able to advocate for myself to ensure I am being well compensated for my work according to my job responsibilities, years of experience and ancillary benefits,” Moody says.

Moody has found that the benefits of this survey go beyond her own professional development and ultimately help her ensure she creates an equitable environment for others as well. “As a hiring manager, there is nothing like reviewing the Salary Survey data to ensure that when I hire, our compensation package fits with the market rate for each person, allowing me to ensure I’m paying my team equitably,” she says. “I look forward to seeing how the trends in the industry change with every Salary Survey so I can continue to create a compelling case when advocating for myself and my team.”

The Apra Salary Survey is available online, open to Apra members and nonmembers. Responses will be collected through April 24. For any questions or more information, please reach out to info@aprahome.org.