How to Write a Nonprofit Organization Executive Director Job Description
What’s in an executive director job description?
A nonprofit executive director job description has eight parts: a position summary tied to the mission, the reporting line to the board, five to seven outcome-based responsibilities, qualifications sorted into required, preferred and growth areas, a published salary range with benefits, first-year success measures, the support the board will provide, and clear instructions on how and when to apply.
Consider a search committee holding a resignation letter. The executive director has given ninety days’ notice, and the only job description on file dates from 2014. Changing the dates and posting it is tempting. But the executive director job description is the first hiring document every candidate reads: it shows what the board expects, what it will pay and whether anyone has planned for the new leader’s success. If the search could outlast the notice period, the board may also need an interim leader for the gap.
For a working draft, download our sample nonprofit executive director job description (PDF), written for a fictional youth-education nonprofit, and replace its “competitive” salary line with a real range.
Key Takeaways
- The board owns the job description. Staff and the outgoing executive director inform it, and the full board approves it.
- Write five to seven responsibilities as outcomes and leave the task list for onboarding.
- Separate the few qualifications the role needs on day one from the growth areas the board will support.
- Publish a salary range, and set it through the process Form 990 asks about: independent approval, comparable data and written records.
- Name the first-year support in the offer, including onboarding, a board contact and executive coaching.
Who Should Write the Job Description?
The board writes the executive director job description, because the executive director reports to the board. BoardSource lists selecting the chief executive as a basic board responsibility and says boards must agree on the chief executive’s responsibilities and run a careful search. In practice, a search committee drafts the document and the full board approves it.
Senior staff should contribute. The finance lead knows which reports the board actually reads, and the development lead knows which donor relationships the new leader will inherit. Ask them what the job requires, then keep the drafting with the committee.
The outgoing executive director is the best source on how the job works today and the wrong person to write the final draft. The document describes the position the organization needs next, which may differ from the job the current leader shaped. Ask for a written account of their calendar, recurring decisions and key relationships, and use it as input. The same list feeds the handover phase of a transition plan.
What Sections Does the Job Description Need?
A nonprofit executive director job description needs eight sections, in this order: position summary, reporting line, responsibilities, qualifications, compensation and benefits, first-year success measures, support offered, and how to apply. The last three are where a board shows candidates it has planned for the hire as well as the vacancy.
| Section | What it says | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Position summary | The mission, the organization’s size (budget, staff, sites) and why the role matters now | Opening with “dynamic, visionary leader” instead of facts |
| Reports to | The board of directors, through the board chair | Naming a committee without saying who supervises day to day |
| Responsibilities | Five to seven outcome areas | Thirty tasks copied from the last posting |
| Qualifications | Two or three requirements, then preferred experience and first-year growth areas | Requiring every skill on day one |
| Compensation and benefits | A salary range, the main benefits and the schedule | “Competitive, commensurate with experience” |
| First-year success measures | Three to five results the board will review at the first evaluation | No measures, so the first review has no baseline |
| Support offered | Onboarding plan, board contact, professional development, coaching | Left out, which signals the new hire is on their own |
| How to apply | Materials, deadline, contact and when finalists hear back | No deadline, so strong candidates move on |
How Do You Write the Responsibilities?
Write the responsibilities as five to seven outcomes the executive director owns, each in one or two sentences. An outcome says what will be true when the job is done well, such as a balanced budget the board understands. A task list describes the work. Candidates judge the role by the outcomes, and the board evaluates against them.
Sample wording for seven outcome areas, to cut or merge for your organization:
- Mission and strategy: Leads the strategic plan with the board and reports progress each quarter.
- Revenue and fundraising: Meets the board-approved revenue goal of [amount] and manages major donor and funder relationships.
- Financial stewardship: Delivers a budget the board approves and monthly reports it can read without translation.
- Staff leadership: Recruits, develops and keeps a staff of [number], with clear roles and fair hiring practices.
- Programs and community: Reports program results against stated outcomes to the board twice a year.
- Board partnership: Works with the board chair to keep the board informed and focused on governance.
- Public face: Represents the organization with partners, funders, media and the public.
Staff leadership deserves the most specific wording. In the coaching applications CNPC receives, team and staff management is the need leaders name most often: 82 of 152 applicants, well ahead of strategic planning (30). Say how many people the executive director supervises directly, so candidates can judge the management load.
The day-to-day duties behind each outcome belong in the onboarding plan, and our list of nonprofit executive director responsibilities sets them out. For what the job involves once the new leader starts, see our guide to the nonprofit executive director role.
Which Qualifications Should You Require?
Require only the two or three qualifications the role cannot wait for, and list the rest as preferred. Long requirement lists screen out strong program and fundraising leaders who are ready to grow into the top job. Write competencies, such as managing a budget of a similar size, instead of degree and years-of-experience thresholds.
One pattern recurs in the coaching applications CNPC receives from new executive directors: the leader was promoted from program management, fundraising or operations. They arrive strong in one function and then meet five new demands at once: financial oversight, board governance, HR management, fundraising ownership and strategic planning. One applicant put it plainly: “I’ve never run a nonprofit before. I am learning as I go.” A posting that demands all five on day one can filter out these candidates.
Hire for the two or three things the job cannot wait for. Everything else is the first year’s work.
Try three tiers instead. Required: what the leader must handle in the first ninety days without help, often financial management at your budget size and staff supervision. Preferred: experience that shortens the learning curve, such as work with the communities you serve. Growth areas: skills the board expects to develop in year one, with the support named later in the document. Our guide compares the ways nonprofit leaders build those skills.
If the board is open to a first-time leader, say so in the posting. Our guide on support for a first-time nonprofit executive director covers that first year from the leader’s side.
How Should You Describe the Board Relationship?
State that the executive director reports to the board of directors and name the day-to-day contact, which on most boards is the chair. BoardSource describes the chair as the chief executive’s day-to-day supervisor and partner, and that holds whether you title the role CEO or executive director. Then name who sets annual goals, when the evaluation happens, and where the board’s governance role ends and management begins.
Board relations come up in 23 of the 152 coaching applications CNPC has reviewed, and first-time executive directors often describe uncertainty about how to work with their board. Writing the relationship down before the hire removes much of that guesswork.
Sample wording, one workable model to adjust to your bylaws: “The executive director reports to the board of directors through the board chair, who meets with the executive director monthly. The board sets policy and strategy, and the executive director leads staff and operations.”
Tie the annual goals to the first-year success measures in the posting, so the first executive director evaluation starts from a baseline both sides agreed to. Good measures are concrete: a board-approved budget for the next fiscal year, a fundraising goal drawn from the strategic plan, key staff roles filled, and introductions completed with major donors and community partners. The same measures tell the search committee what its executive director interview questions need to test.
Should You Publish the Salary Range?
Yes. Publish a salary range and the main benefits. Some states require it. Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires compensation and benefits in all job postings, along with how and when to apply. Elsewhere, a range still spares both sides a late-stage mismatch that costs the search weeks.
How the board sets the number matters as much as the number. Organizations that file the full Form 990 answer Part VI line 15a (see the Form 990 instructions): was the executive director’s pay approved by the board or a compensation committee without conflicted members, based on data for comparable positions at similar organizations, and documented at the time? Smaller organizations that file Form 990-EZ or 990-N skip this question, but the steps still matter for them.
The same three steps create the IRS rebuttable presumption that the pay is reasonable. In the IRS’s words, it “may refute the presumption of reasonableness only if it develops sufficient contrary evidence to rebut the probative value of the comparability data relied upon by the authorized body.”
For the numbers, start with nonprofit executive director salary benchmarks, and check the pay transparency rules where the job is based before the posting goes live.
Why Name Coaching Support in the Offer?
Naming support in the job description tells candidates what help they will have in year one. List the onboarding plan, a board contact, a professional development budget and executive coaching. Coaching adds a confidential thinking partner, which matters because new executive directors often describe the role as isolating in their coaching applications.
Write coaching in as an offer, not a condition. In our coaches’ experience, board-mandated coaching for an executive who does not want it is the clearest waste of the fee: the leader attends and nothing changes. Presenting coaching as a fix for a weak hire also creates a stigma that keeps capable leaders from using it. Offered as a standard benefit, it reads as an investment in the person the board chose. Our guide for boards covers funding coaching as standard practice.
Sample wording: “The board provides a professional development budget, including an executive coaching engagement in the first year, and a board liaison for the first ninety days.”
Budget for it in the offer, and name it in the executive director employment agreement. CNPC’s executive coaching program costs $300, $400 or $600 for six sessions, depending on the organization’s operating expenses, which is 85%+ below market rate because our volunteer coaches donate their time. For how coaching works with nonprofit executives, see executive coaching for nonprofit leaders.
One step for this week: add a line naming the coaching budget to the support section, then send the draft to the full board. When the hire is made, our guide to announcing a new executive director covers the next step. Once the new executive director starts, they or the board chair can apply for coaching.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a nonprofit executive director job description be?
Two pages is enough for all eight sections. A longer document usually means the responsibilities have turned into a task list, so move the detailed duties into the onboarding plan and keep the posting to outcomes, requirements, pay and support.
Is an executive director the same as a CEO at a nonprofit?
In most nonprofits the two titles describe the same job: the top staff leader, who reports to the board. The IRS Form 990 instructions group them together as the top management official. Larger organizations sometimes choose CEO. Pick one title and use it consistently.
Where should a board post the job description?
Post it on your own website first, then on nonprofit job boards, your state nonprofit association’s job board and LinkedIn. Send it to funders, partners and board members’ networks, which reach candidates who are not actively searching.
How often should the board update the job description?
Review it at every hire, whenever the strategic plan changes, and once a year at the executive director’s evaluation. A current document also speeds up nonprofit succession planning, because the board is not rewriting the role during a vacancy.
