Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence

2023 Salary and Benefits and State of The Nonprofit Sector Report

The Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence (NICNE) conducts a triennial salary and benefits survey gathering and summarizing compensation and benefits information for area nonprofits as compared to national trends to ensure competitive wages and benefits within the sector. In response to the desire of local nonprofit leaders to collect additional information and data specific to Winnebago and Boone Counties, NICNE also conducts a State of the Sector survey. The State of the Sector survey provides evidence of the economic impact of nonprofits in our region as well as information about nonprofit governance, financial health, voluntarism, and service delivery.

View the 2023 State of the Nonprofit Sector and Nonprofit Salary and Benefits Report for Boone and Winnebago Counties report. We welcome your feedback and hope you find the information helpful.

Belonging Task Force and Partners Host Keynote with john a. powell and Panel Discussion with Area Employers on Building a Culture of Belonging in the Workplace

The Rockford Belonging Task Force and NICNE in partnership with the Rockford Chamber of Commerce presented Building a Culture of Belonging in the Workplace on October 18, 2022, at the UW Health Sports Factory. john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at University of California, Berkeley, shared a keynote address on the imperative of Belonging as it relates to the workplace and the science behind his work on Othering and Belonging. Employee Belonging impacts wellness, happiness, commitment, engagement, motivation and retention.

john (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be "part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify") is an internationally recognized expert and thought leader on civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, fair housing, poverty and democracy. He is well-known for his work on "targeted universalism" and "othering and Belonging" and is the author of several books.

In addition to the keynote address, a panel discussion moderated by City of Rockford Mayor, Tom McNamara, was held with representatives from Collins Aerospace, Rockford Park District and the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau sharing their efforts to build belonging, foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace and create opportunities for employees to use their strengths to contribute to meaningfully towards shared outcomes aligned with employer goals.

The event was sponsored by Collins Aerospace, United Way of Rock River Valley, Rockford Public Schools – District 205, Rockford Chamber of Commerce and NICNE.

NICNE's CollabLab Offers Fresh Solutions to Difficult Social Problems

In December of 2022, the Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence officially launched the Social Innovation and Collaboration Laboratory, known as CollabLab, which breaks barriers to collaboration and leverages the collective power of cross-sector partners from nonprofits, business, government, academia, and the community at large to solve social problems. The CollabLab is a toolbox of resources to identify innovative solutions and enhance innovation and collaboration for social change with an underlying proven strategy for collaboration and innovation that identifies and implements solutions to social challenges in the Rock River Valley.

The region's most challenging social problems require high-impact solutions that can only be achieved through collaborative efforts. "No one individual, organization or sector alone can solve our most complex social issues," said Pam Clark Reidenbach, NICNE president and CEO. "Committing to work together to accomplish a shared vision is our greatest opportunity for lasting results. Focusing on social innovation commits to seeking new solutions to existing entrenched issues." CollabLab represents NICNE's and NIU's commitment to deepening their work by helping nonprofits identify potential collaborative partners, convening stakeholders around innovative solutions to specific social issues, and developing tools and resources to grow collaboration and take action. NICNE has assisted several collaborative initiatives in recent years and is now celebrating those successes with CollabLab's official launch. Several NICNE-supported collaborative initiatives underway in the region include facilitation of the Youth Mental Health System of Care Initiative, Belonging Begins with Us: Rockford Initiative, Rockford Area Case Management Initiative, and initial facilitation of the Childhood Literacy Project, Sustain Rockford and the Ready to Learn Initiative.

john a. powell Leads Community Conversation to Understand and Promote a Culture of True Belonging

As our country reacts to the tragic occurrences of social injustice, disconnection and divisiveness, a solution for charting a course to build a culture of Belonging for all people is paramount. On October 23, 2020, john a. powell, an internationally recognized expert and thought leader on civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, fair housing, poverty and democracy, visited Rockford virtually for a conversation with a diverse group of community members committed to moving the work on Belonging forward and how we can better understand and promote belonging in our community. john shared his work and led a discussion around how we can better understand and promote Belonging in our community. This conversation was broadcast via Livestream and on Facebook and was viewed by more than 8,500 people. We hope to connect people to the work, lift community voices, create bridges to greater understanding, encourage action, and ultimately chart the course for creating a culture of Belonging in Rockford. To learn more about the ongoing work around Belonging in our community, visit the Belonging Begins with Us: Rockford website.

john is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute that brings together scholars, community advocates, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world. john is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of "targeted universalism" and "othering and belonging" to effect equity-based interventions and is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.