What actually moved the number for you: a script, or having somewhere else to go? Negotiation

From the hiring side: the phrasing matters far less than whether the person on the other end has room and a reason. Room means the requisition was approved with a range and you are not already at the top of it. Reason means either a competing option or something specific you bring that the level does not assume. When I could not move base I could often move a signing amount, a start date, a title, or a review at six months instead of twelve, and candidates who asked about those got them far more often than candidates who kept pushing base.

Leverage moved mine and nothing else ever has. The two times my number went up meaningfully I had another process running and said so plainly, with a date attached. Not a threat, just a fact and a deadline: I have a decision to make by the eleventh and I would rather it be this one. Enthusiasm without an alternative reads as a signal that you will accept.

Silence did more for me than any phrase. They said a number, I said that I appreciated it and that I had expected something closer to X based on what the role covered, and then I stopped talking. The pause was horrible and it produced an extra four thousand. The script is not the tool, the willingness to sit in the discomfort is.

In a published-band environment the negotiation happens before the offer, at the level assignment. Once you are slotted as a grade six, the range is the range and the recruiter genuinely cannot move it. What you can influence is the case for being brought in at the top of the band or at the next grade, and that argument has to be made while they are still deciding what to call the role.

Nonprofit specifically: ask about the things that cost the organisation less than salary. Extra leave, a four-day pattern, a professional development budget, a home working allowance, or a title that will help you at the next place. I have got all five at various points and never once moved a base salary in that sector.