Mary Black Foundation needed to establish salary bands specific to its own organizational context. Current compensation decisions relied on a national survey benchmark, useful as a data point but not calibrated to the foundation's regional market, sector peers, or the distinct scope of its roles. As the organization grew and added positions unique to its mission, the gap between available data and actionable guidance widened. Nine roles needed to be benchmarked: five positions shared within a broader organizational scope and four roles specific to the Mary Black Foundation. Leadership needed a compensation framework built for Mary Black, not borrowed from a generic national dataset.
Three core needs drove this engagement:
Role-specific market data drawn from regional, national, and sector-aligned sources.
Clear, defensible salary bands the organization could actually use for hiring and internal decisions.
A plan for bringing staff and board along on the new compensation philosophy.
Identified peer organizations and conducted outreach to gather compensation and benefits data.
Developed role-aligned comparisons, adjusted for geography and function, and incorporated benefits analysis.
Created recommendations for salary bands, hiring practices, and internal communication aligned to budget timelines.
The Mary Black Foundation was looking to review the competitiveness of our compensation and benefits, keeping our core values and charitable mission in mind. Stronger Consulting helped us develop and communicate a compensation philosophy that is fair and transparent, externally competitive, affordable and sustainable, and complemented by a total rewards package.
Stronger Consulting partners with mission-driven organizations to turn complex challenges into clear, practical action, from strategy through implementation.
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