Best States for Fundraising Managers: New York Ranks Highest as California Employs the Most

Across the United States, fundraising managers earn a national median annual salary of $125,470 with national employment of 38,810 positions. National projected employment growth for this occupation is 4.2%, which provides context for understanding how state-level salary and scale sit within a growing national field. Within that national picture, LaborCove identifies 48 states with available data for this occupation. Among the top-ranked states, California has the largest supplied employment count at 5,430 fundraising manager roles, while New York leads the rankings with a LaborCove Geography Score of 78.90. Several of the top states also post median salaries above the national median, but their overall rankings do not always follow salary alone, indicating that the Geography Score reflects more than a single metric. The top ten states show distinct combinations of pay and employment levels. For example, New York’s median salary of $169,510 is higher than the national median and higher than California’s median salary of $135,870, even though California has a larger supplied employment count. At the same time, states such as Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island also report median salaries above the national median, with smaller supplied employment counts than California and New York where those counts are available. These contrasts highlight that fundraising managers face a variety of trade-offs depending on whether they prioritize salary levels, employment scale, or a state’s overall LaborCove ranking.

At the national level, fundraising managers have a median annual salary of $125,470. National employment stands at 38,810 positions. National projected employment growth for this occupation is 4.2%, indicating a nationally expanding field based on the supplied projections. This national benchmark frames the state-level results. Several of the top-ranked states report median salaries above the $125,470 national median, while the largest supplied state employment count is 5,430. Comparing these state figures to the national reference points helps clarify whether a location sits above or below the national benchmarks for salary and employment scale. It is important to note that the 4.2% projected growth rate applies only to the occupation as a whole at the national level. No state-level or metro-level projected growth rates are supplied, so this national projection is not used to infer future hiring or growth patterns in individual states.

LaborCove ranks New York as the top state for fundraising managers, with a Geography Score of 78.90. California follows in second place with a Geography Score of 75.51. Massachusetts holds third place at 62.51, indicating a notable score drop from the top two states. New Hampshire, ranked fourth, has a Geography Score of 50.14, while Washington in fifth and Virginia in sixth both have Geography Scores of 48.92. New Jersey follows in seventh place with a Geography Score of 48.83, and Rhode Island holds eighth place at 48.73. Missouri and Illinois close out the top ten with Geography Scores of 45.96 and 44.95, respectively. These scores show clear separation among the top states. New York’s score is higher than California’s, and both are higher than the scores of Massachusetts and the rest of the top ten. Within the middle of the ranking, the Geography Scores of Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, and Rhode Island are close to one another, while Missouri and Illinois trail the top two states by wider score margins.

Several of the top ten states for fundraising managers report median salaries higher than the national median of $125,470. New York’s median salary of $169,510 is higher than the national median and higher than California’s median salary of $135,870. Massachusetts, at $151,740, and New Hampshire, at $157,080, also exceed the national median. Rhode Island’s median salary of $155,970 is higher than the national figure and higher than California’s median salary. Washington’s median salary of $137,010, Virginia’s $143,730, and New Jersey’s $140,500 are each above the $125,470 national median. Within the top ten, Missouri’s median salary of $111,120 and Illinois’s $106,290 are below the national median. The salary data show that New York has a higher reported median salary than any of the other listed top states. At the same time, California, while not the highest-paying among this group, still sits above the national median salary. These differences illustrate that higher Geography Scores do not simply mirror the salary ranking, since California’s Geography Score rank is second even though multiple other states have higher reported median salaries than California.

Among the top-ranked states, California has the largest supplied employment count for fundraising managers, with 5,430 roles. New York has an employment count of 4,080, which is smaller than California’s but still substantial within the top group. Massachusetts reports 2,260 fundraising manager positions, and Illinois reports 2,860. Washington has an employment count of 1,050, while Virginia’s count is 880. New Jersey reports 750 fundraising manager roles. New Hampshire’s employment count is 270 and Rhode Island’s is 220 among the states with supplied figures. Missouri’s employment count is not supplied, so it cannot be compared on this metric. When viewed against the national employment figure of 38,810, each of these state counts represents a portion of the overall occupational base. California’s employment count is higher than New York’s and higher than the employment counts supplied for Massachusetts, Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Illinois. New York’s employment count is higher than those of Massachusetts, Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island among the states where employment is supplied.

The top ten states for fundraising managers show that salary, employment scale, and overall LaborCove Geography Score do not always move together. New York ranks first with a Geography Score of 78.90 and has a median salary of $169,510, while California ranks second with a Geography Score of 75.51 and a median salary of $135,870. In median salary terms, states such as New Hampshire ($157,080), Rhode Island ($155,970), and Massachusetts ($151,740) report higher pay than California but rank lower overall. Employment also provides a different ordering. California’s employment count of 5,430 is higher than New York’s 4,080 and higher than the counts reported for the other top states, yet California still ranks second on the Geography Score. Illinois, with 2,860 fundraising manager roles, has a higher employment count than Massachusetts at 2,260 but ranks tenth overall, below Massachusetts in third place. For fundraising managers comparing locations, this means the “best” state can differ depending on which metric is most important. The LaborCove Geography Score highlights overall ranking, national figures provide context for pay and employment scale, and individual state salary and employment values make it possible to focus on the specific balance between compensation and occupational concentration that each state offers.

LaborCove uses authoritative labor-market data combined with its internal Geography Score methodology to compare locations for each occupation. For fundraising managers (SOC 11-2033), national employment, wages, and related measures are based on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) observations for May 2025, with a 2026 report year. The national projected employment growth rate of 4.2% reflects a separate occupational projection at the national level, not an OEWS observation and not a state or metro forecast. The Geography Score summarizes how each state performs across multiple labor-market dimensions for a given occupation. In this article, we reference the Geography Score as provided, along with median annual salary and employment counts, but we do not attribute the ranking to any single factor unless the evidence explicitly supports that link. Because individual priorities vary, LaborCove rankings should be considered as one input alongside a fundraising manager’s own goals around compensation, location, and role type. The analysis here remains within the supplied evidence: we compare states using only their reported median salaries, employment counts, Geography Scores, and ranks, and we treat national projected growth strictly as a national context indicator rather than a geographic projection.