Quick answer: Nonprofit management degrees usually cover fundraising and donor development, board governance, program evaluation and nonprofit finance. Social and community service managers earn a median $80,390 and are projected to grow 6.4 percent through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Programs, careers and pay are covered below.
The fund accounting and governance sequence is the part that is hardest to pick up on the job and the part employers most often cannot teach internally. Weight it when you compare programs.
CIP 52.0206, nonprofit and public organization management, is a distinct program code, and 233 institutions awarded it at bachelor’s or master’s level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024). That is a small supply by the standards of this silo.
It previously had nowhere of its own to sit. A reader searching for nonprofit management landed on the public administration page and saw a school list built from a different program code, one weighted toward government agency careers. The two disciplines share a management core and diverge completely on where the money comes from and who holds the organization accountable.
At 233 institutions the supply is thin nationally, and that thinness carries into the state and metro pages below, which break the same national pool down by location.
Before you request information anywhere, ask how the fund accounting sequence is taught, whether a practicum can be completed with an organization near you, and get a written transfer evaluation. With that filter set, compare online nonprofit management programs enrolling now:
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by BOC Score with the highest at the top. 10 of them carry a score.
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal about the institution rather than about this subject. Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Source: ACCSC IPEDS College Scorecard
Nonprofit management pays less than equivalent private-sector management, and anyone considering this degree should see that in numbers rather than in euphemism.
Social and community service managers earn a median $80,390 and fundraisers a median $72,550 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Both sit below the general management occupations tracked on the business and management degrees hub, and the ceiling is lower as well: the 90th percentile here is $132,260 for managers and $115,820 for fundraisers, where broad private-sector management runs considerably higher.
What the sector offers in exchange is stability of demand and a shorter route to real responsibility. Both destination occupations are growing, and small organizations hand a competent administrator a whole function early rather than a narrow slice of one. Whether that trade is worth the difference in median pay is a personal question, not a data question, but it should be made with the actual figures in view.
People already running something voluntarily. Board members, union officers, volunteer coordinators, church and community group administrators. If you are already doing the work, the degree is largely a matter of putting formal structure and vocabulary around it.
Tradespeople moving toward community or workforce organizations. Apprenticeship programs, training funds, housing organizations and disaster response groups are all staffed by administrators, and field credibility is genuinely valuable in them.
Career changers who want management work with a mission attached and who have looked honestly at the pay difference above.
People considering the human services route instead. The human services degree sits closer to direct client work, where this degree sits on the administrative and financial side of the same organizations.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
The case for is that the specific skills are scarce inside the sector. Plenty of people can run a program; far fewer can also read a fund accounting statement, keep a board inside its lane, and write a credible outcome report. Organizations promote the person who can do both.
The case against is that the degree is not a licence and the sector hires heavily on demonstrated commitment. A general business and management or organizational leadership degree travels further across sectors and can be pointed at nonprofit work afterwards. If there is any chance of a return to private-sector management, the broader credential is the safer bet.
Is college worth it covers the general tradeoff. Individual outcomes may vary.
Social and community service managers earn a median $80,390 across 209,330 jobs, with employment projected to grow 6.4 percent through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
| Metric | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median annual wage | $80,390 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Wage range | $53,150 (10th pct) - $132,260 (90th pct) | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Mean annual wage | $88,880 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Employment | 209,330 social and community service managers | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Projected change (2024-34) | 6.4%, about 18,600 openings per year | BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34 |
| Typical credential | Bachelor’s, with master’s common for executive roles | Program catalogs |
| Institutions awarding | 233 | IPEDS Completions, 2024 |
| Geo coverage | State, metro and city pages - see Programs by State below | Site structure |
| SOC codes covered | 11-9151 social and community service managers; 13-1131 fundraisers | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Role | Median | 75th percentile | Employment | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social and community service managers | $80,390 | $103,200 | 209,330 | 6.4% |
| Fundraisers | $72,550 | $92,180 | 111,040 | 4.3% |
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The two rows describe the two halves of the same organization. The management row runs the programs and the budget; the fundraising row brings in the money that pays for both. The management row pays more at the median and at the 75th percentile, and it is the larger and faster-growing of the two at 209,330 jobs and 6.4 percent.
Fundraising is worth understanding even if it is not the target job. In small organizations the executive is the fundraiser, and the ability to raise money is the single most reliable route from program work into leadership. Programs that treat donor development as a real technical subject rather than a soft elective are the ones to shortlist.
The national median annual wage is $80,390 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $53,150 or less and the top 10 percent earn $132,260 or more, across employment of 209,330.
The national median annual wage for fundraisers is $72,550, with a range from $46,630 at the 10th percentile to $115,820 at the 90th (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Employment is 111,040.
Yes, modestly. Social and community service managers are projected to grow 6.4 percent from 2024 to 2034 with about 18,600 openings a year, and fundraisers 4.3 percent with about 10,200 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Generally yes, and this page states that plainly rather than around it. Social and community service managers earn a median $80,390 and fundraisers $72,550 (BLS OEWS, May 2025), which sits below the general management occupations covered on the business degree pages in this silo. That gap is the central tradeoff of this degree.
233 institutions awarded CIP 52.0206 at bachelor's or master's level in 2024 (IPEDS Completions, 2024). It is a small category, and that thinness carries into the state and metro pages linked below.
Public administration is built around government agencies, budgeting and policy implementation. Nonprofit management is built around voluntary organizations, board governance, donor and funder relationships, and program delivery under restricted funding. The management core overlaps; the money and accountability structures do not.
Yes. The coursework is administrative and case-based, with no laboratory component. Many programs build in a practicum with a local organization, which is completed in the student's own community rather than on campus.
It can be, particularly for people already volunteering, serving on a board, or running operations for a community organization, a union local or a faith group. The degree is designed to formalize administration that many people are already doing unpaid. Individual outcomes may vary.
State pay, licensing and metro-level data for this degree. Wage and employment figures on every state page come from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
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About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
