Frequently asked questions
How waterline works, where its data comes from, and how your organization's data is protected.
About waterline
What is waterline?
waterline is a real-time pay benchmarking tool built for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. It shows leaders, HR teams, boards and funders how their pay compares to similar nonprofits, so they can make fair, competitive pay decisions they can explain to their board and staff.
Who built waterline?
waterline was built by Amy Kaufman and Bryn Murray, who bring decades of combined experience in the nonprofit sector. It grows out of more than ten years leading the Watershed Chicago Nonprofit Compensation Survey, which over 300 organizations used.
How is waterline different from other salary tools?
Most salary tools are built for the corporate world or rely on an annual survey. waterline is different in four ways:
- Local: benchmarks for 50 metro areas across the US, so you see pay in your actual market.
- Tailored: compare by budget size, metro area and sector.
- Always current: figures update as new data arrives, so they do not go stale.
- Nonprofit roles: 248 roles drawn from the sector itself.
Where is waterline available?
Anywhere in the United States, with benchmarks for 50 metro areas. See all 50 metro areas. Not on the list? Join the waitlist and tell us where you are.
Which roles does waterline benchmark?
248 roles drawn from the nonprofit sector, from Executive Director to Program Coordinator. Search every role we benchmark.
How waterline works
How do I benchmark a position?
Three steps. Upload your salary spreadsheet, with job descriptions if you have them. Confirm the role each position is matched to. Then see every position against the market on your dashboard. You can use your own spreadsheet or our template.
What if a job title doesn't match anything in waterline?
Nonprofit titles vary widely, so we match on the work itself. When you include job descriptions, we use the duties and level of responsibility described to suggest the best match. You accept the suggestion or choose a different role. If nothing fits, the position stays on your roster marked as not benchmarked, letting us know which roles to add next.
How do I benchmark a hybrid role, like a Development and Communications Director?
Choose the role that covers most of the work and benchmark against that. If the split is close, look at both roles on your dashboard to see the range between them. waterline does not blend two roles into one figure.
What filters and comparisons can I use?
Budget size, metro area and sector. Your own organization's details are the starting view, and you can change any of them to plan a scenario, like a growth year or a new office.
What does waterline cover beyond salary?
Base pay is the core benchmark. Benefits and bonuses are included too, each with its own report comparing your practice to your peers.
Can I download or export reports?
Yes. waterline has six reports:
- Full compensation report
- Position benchmark report
- Leadership summary
- Internal equity report
- Benefits report
- Bonuses & increases report
Each downloads as a PDF and a PowerPoint file, and all but the Leadership summary also download as a CSV.
Data and methodology
Where does waterline's data come from?
waterline started with data from Studio Watershed's nonprofit compensation survey. We continually add to it with:
- Participating organizations: nonprofits share their own pay data every time they confirm a roster.
- IRS Form 990 filings: pay that nonprofits report publicly.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics: federal wage data, adjusted for the nonprofit sector before we use it.
- Current job postings: pay ranges organizations are offering right now.
These sources are combined into one market figure for each role.
Is the data self-reported by employees?
No. Pay is reported by participating organizations, not crowdsourced from individual employees, which makes it more reliable than free salary websites.
How often is the data updated?
Participating organizations' data updates in real time. Job postings, IRS Form 990 filings and Bureau of Labor Statistics data are refreshed on a set schedule as new data is released.
How do you ensure data quality?
- One organization, one voice. We count organizations, not rows, so an employer with twelve people in a role cannot pull a figure toward itself.
- Outlier review. A submission that stands far apart from similar organizations is held out of every figure until our team reviews it.
- Minimum sample sizes. A benchmark appears only when enough independent data stands behind it.
- Matches you confirm. Every position is matched to a role by the organization that knows the job best, not by us alone.
How many organizations and positions are included?
More than 100 organizations have contributed pay data directly, alongside more than 400,000 public IRS filing records and federal wage data for every metro we cover. Benchmarks cover 248 roles across five budget sizes and 50 metro areas.
What happens when there isn't enough data for a position?
We show a number only when it is backed by enough data. Where a role is close, you see how much more data it needs, and it fills on its own as more organizations contribute and new filings and postings arrive. Where no source covers a role yet, the dashboard tells you that no benchmark is available for it, rather than showing a figure we can't support.
Can I see which organizations are in the data?
No. You can't see which organizations are behind any figure, and no organization's data can be viewed on its own.
AI and technology
How does waterline use AI?
Today, in two places. AI reads an uploaded job description and suggests which role fits it best, and it writes the plain-language summary beside a benchmark. No pay figure in waterline is produced by AI.
Can I trust AI-generated suggestions?
AI suggestions are a starting point, and you decide. Every role match is confirmed by your organization before it counts, and you can change any of them. We recommend checking each match against the role's actual duties, level and qualifications.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No. We use our AI provider under commercial terms that do not allow it to use your data to train its general-purpose models. Before anything is sent, we remove names, email addresses and your organization's name and identifiers. Job descriptions are free-form, so we can't promise to catch every name in one; please leave personal details out of them.
Data privacy and security
Is our pay data kept confidential?
Yes. Other organizations never see your pay on its own. It reaches them only as part of a combined market figure for a role. Pay from fewer than ten organizations is never shown as a figure of its own; it only counts, at a smaller weight, inside a market figure that combines several sources. Benefits and bonus figures appear once at least five organizations have answered. Your own data is always left out of the figures you see, and no one can see which organizations are behind any figure.
What personal information do you collect?
From your roster, nothing that names an employee: a name or email column is not read and never reaches our database. We keep title, pay, pay type, FTE, hire year, location, employment type and union status. Job description files are kept as you upload them. We remove names and contact details from the text we read, but because descriptions are free-form we can't promise to catch every one, so please leave personal details out. For the people who use your account, we keep their name, email address and sign-in details.
How is data stored and protected?
Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest and held with established US cloud providers. Every request is limited to your own organization's data inside the database itself, not just on screen.
Can you complete our vendor security questionnaire?
Yes. Email support@waterlinepay.com.
Pricing and plans
How much does waterline cost?
One plan with unlimited benchmarks, billed annually and priced by your organization's budget size.
How many users are included?
Up to three people per organization.
Do you offer discounts for networks, coalitions or member organizations?
Yes. We offer discounted pricing for members of partner networks and coalitions. Contact us at support@waterlinepay.com for more information.
Can a foundation purchase access for its grantees?
Yes. A foundation can sponsor accounts for its grantee partners, and each grantee gets its own account. We offer discounted pricing for group purchases. Contact us at support@waterlinepay.com for more information.
Do contributing organizations receive a discount?
Every organization that uses waterline contributes, and that exchange is what makes the data possible. Contributing is part of the plan rather than a separate discount.
How can I pay? Can I pay by invoice?
We prefer payment by credit card, and we can also invoice your organization if that works better for you. waterline is in private beta right now; join the waitlist.
What is your cancellation and renewal policy?
Your plan renews as set out in your order unless you cancel. When your plan ends, your access to waterline ends, though we may allow a limited period to download your reports. Your data is deleted upon request. See our Terms of Service for details.
Getting started
How quickly can I start using waterline?
Right away. Most organizations upload a roster and see their first benchmarks in a single sitting.
Do I need compensation expertise to use waterline?
No. waterline is designed for executive directors, finance and operations leaders, HR professionals and board members.
Using waterline data
Can I use waterline to set executive pay for IRS reasonable compensation purposes?
Yes, waterline can serve as comparability data for your board. When setting executive pay, the IRS expects boards to look at what similar organizations pay for similar roles. waterline compares by budget size, metro area and sector, the factors that make an organization similar.
waterline also produces dated reports, so your board keeps a record of the exact data it reviewed when it made its decision.
waterline is one part of the process, not the whole process. To get the IRS's protection, your board should also approve pay without conflicts of interest and document its decision. We recommend checking with your legal or tax advisor.
Can I share waterline reports with my board?
Yes. All six reports can be downloaded and shared. The Leadership summary is designed to be presented.
Can I use waterline for pay equity or salary range transparency?
Yes. Every role comes with a recommended range, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, that you can use to set or publish salary ranges. The Internal equity report shows how your roles compare to each other and flags compression and gaps. waterline does not collect demographic data, so it does not analyze pay by gender or race.
How should I set pay for interns, fellows or part-time staff?
Part-time staff are fully covered: their pay is compared at its full-time equivalent. Hourly staff are annualized at 2,080 hours. waterline does not benchmark interns or fellows today.
Should we adjust salaries for cost of living?
waterline benchmarks market pay: what organizations actually pay for the role in your metro, which already reflects local costs. For remote staff, you can set the metro of each position to where the person works.
Contributing data
How does my organization contribute data?
By using waterline. When you confirm your roster, your pay joins the pool. There is no separate survey to fill out.
What do I get for participating?
Benchmarks for every position you have, built on data from organizations like yours. The more organizations take part, the more roles fill in, for everyone.
How is contributed data protected?
See Data privacy and security above and our Privacy Policy.
Customer service and support
How do I contact waterline support?
Email support@waterlinepay.com. We handle support by email.
How quickly will I get a response?
Within two business days.
How do I add or transfer users on my account?
Your account owner invites and removes people from Settings, up to three per organization.
How do I request a feature or report a problem?
Email support@waterlinepay.com. Positions with no role to benchmark against also tell us what to add next.