Nonprofit Executive Director Responsibilities: What the Job Really Is at a Small Organization
What does a nonprofit executive director do?
Nonprofit executive director responsibilities fall into five areas: the board relationship, finances, fundraising, staff and volunteers, and the programs and strategy behind the mission. The executive director is the top staff leader, hired by the board and accountable to it. In a small nonprofit, the executive director does most of this work personally.
Most lists of nonprofit executive director responsibilities read as if a development director, a finance manager and an HR lead sit down the hall. In a three-person organization, the executive director is all three. A normal week holds a grant report finished at 9 p.m., payroll run at noon and an afternoon at the front desk while the program coordinator is out.
Key Takeaways
- The board hires, evaluates and can remove the executive director, who runs the organization within board-approved policy and budget.
- At a small nonprofit, the executive director does the fundraising, finance and HR work personally.
- The Small-Shop Duty Map orders the handoffs: bookkeeping and payroll first, then grant writing, then volunteer coordination.
- The board relationship never moves to anyone else. It grows with the organization.
Nonprofit Executive Director Responsibilities: The Five Areas
The executive director is the chief staff officer of a nonprofit. The board hires, evaluates and can remove the executive director, and the executive director runs the organization day to day within the policies and budget the board approves. Nearly every duty in the job falls into one of five areas.
- The board. Supporting the board’s governance work, keeping it informed and carrying out its decisions.
- Finances. The budget, cash flow, financial reports, internal controls and the annual IRS return.
- Fundraising. Donor relationships, grants and events, with help from the board.
- Staff and volunteers. Hiring, supervision, personnel compliance and the culture people work in.
- Mission, programs and strategy. Program quality, the strategic plan and the organization’s public face.
Titles vary more than the job does. BoardSource’s The Nonprofit Chief Executive’s Ten Basic Responsibilities names executive director and president as the two most common titles. Our guide to nonprofit leadership development shows where the role sits among other leadership roles.
Where Does the Board’s Job End and Yours Begin?
The board approves direction, the budget and major policies, and it hires, evaluates and supports the executive director. The executive director runs the work those decisions cover, keeps the board informed and brings it the decisions only the board can make.
The bylaws set the formal line: who hires the executive director, how the board votes and what the executive director can sign alone. Day to day, the executive director drafts agendas with the board chair, sends information early, reports problems before they become surprises and, at a small nonprofit, builds every page of the board packet.
A pattern our coaches see in partnerships that work: the board chair and the executive director keep a monthly check-in outside formal meetings, and both can say where governance ends and management begins. In partnerships that struggle, the executive director assumes the board understands the operating reality, the board assumes support exists that does not, and neither checks. For the partnership itself, see our guide to the board and executive director relationship.
Every board decision starts as information the executive director chose to send.
Who Handles the Money in a Small Nonprofit?
The executive director does. The board holds fiduciary responsibility and approves the budget, and a treasurer or finance committee reviews the numbers. Day-to-day financial management, from cash flow to the annual IRS filing, falls to the executive director, and at a small organization so does raising the money.
Small is the normal size. In Nonprofit Impact Matters (2019), the National Council of Nonprofits reports that 88% of nonprofits spend less than $500,000 a year. At that size there is seldom a finance manager or a development director, so both jobs sit with the executive director.
Finance oversight
Finance oversight means a board-approved budget, monthly reports, cash flow watched closely enough to make payroll and controls such as a second signature on large payments. In each monthly report, check cash on hand against the next two payrolls. It also means the annual return. Under the IRS filing thresholds, gross receipts normally of $50,000 or less allow the short Form 990-N, receipts under $200,000 with assets under $500,000 allow Form 990-EZ, and organizations with receipts of $200,000 or more, or assets of $500,000 or more, file the full Form 990. The executive director gathers the information, and a volunteer treasurer and an outside accountant check it.
Fundraising
At a small nonprofit, the executive director is the development department: the major donor relationships, the grant applications and reports, the one or two events a year and the ask to board members to open their networks.
What Does Leading Staff and Volunteers Involve?
Leading people covers hiring, supervising and evaluating staff, keeping personnel practices legal, recruiting and managing volunteers, and setting the culture people work in. In a large organization, an HR department handles much of that. In a small one, the executive director is the HR department, and contractors fill specialist gaps such as payroll or IT.
That load often lands on people never trained for it. A first-time executive director of a small organization in North Carolina put it this way in a coaching application to us: “I don’t have a background in finance or management, and I’m trying to learn as I go, but it’s overwhelming. Our tiny budget has meant that I’ve worn all the hats, often without compensation.”
Volunteers need a clear role, someone to call and thanks that arrives. When nobody else coordinates them, the executive director does.
How Do Mission, Programs and Strategy Fit In?
The executive director answers for whether the programs work. That means knowing what each program delivers, reporting results honestly to the board and funders, leading the strategic plan with the board and representing the organization to the community, partners and the press. The board approves the strategy, and the executive director carries it out.
At a small organization the hard part is time. Program delivery, a grant report and a staffing gap arrive on the same Monday, and the strategic plan waits. Protect a block each week for work only the executive director can do, such as a funder conversation or the next board decision. Our guide to balancing strategy and operations shows how to hold that block.
What Should You Hand Off First as You Grow?
Hand off the work that someone else can do with clear instructions, starting with bookkeeping and payroll, then grant writing, then volunteer coordination. Keep the board relationship. The Small-Shop Duty Map below sets out which duties a small-nonprofit executive director carries now, where each one moves as the budget grows and what stays.
| Duty | Carried personally now | First move as the budget grows | What stays with the executive director |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping and payroll | Entering transactions, running payroll | An outside bookkeeper or payroll service | Reading reports, approving large payments |
| Grant writing | Every application and report | A contract or part-time grant writer | Funder relationships, final sign-off |
| Volunteer coordination | Recruiting, scheduling, thanking | A volunteer lead, paid or unpaid | Deciding what volunteers are for |
| Program delivery | Covering shifts when staff are out | A program manager | Program quality and outcomes |
| Board relations | Agendas, packets, the chair check-in | Packet assembly, once there is an assistant | The relationship itself, which grows each year |
The order follows one test: how much the work depends on the executive director’s judgment and relationships. Bookkeeping depends on accuracy, which a good bookkeeper supplies. Grant writing can move while the funder relationship stays. Adjust the order to your own gaps.
Board relations is the one duty that grows. A larger budget brings a bigger board, committees and more decisions that need a vote, and each runs through the executive director. Take a composite: an executive director, call her Renee, in her second year and still doing the books. Once she hires a bookkeeper, some of the hours she gets back go to the board.
No duty map removes the overload by itself. Handing off work takes money, and some seasons the executive director carries everything again. For that season, coaching for executive directors doing three jobs offers a confidential place to decide what to carry and what to put down.
What Should a New Executive Director Learn First?
Learn three things first: what the board expects of you, how much cash the organization has and when more arrives, and who holds its key funder and partner relationships. Those three shape every other early decision, and each is hard to see from the program or fundraising role many new executive directors come from.
The coaching applications we receive from new executive directors show one pattern: a leader who excelled in one function now faces five gaps at once, in financial oversight, board governance, HR management, fundraising and strategic planning.
Most new executive directors arrive fluent in one area and new to the other four.
Questions to ask yourself at the end of a week:
- Which decisions this week needed you, and which needed only a written answer?
- Which of the five areas got none of your time?
- What does the board chair need to hear from you before the next meeting?
For the first year in detail, read our guide for the first time executive director at a nonprofit. If you are succeeding a long-serving founder, our guide to founder syndrome covers the decisions that still route through the founder.
Is the Job Description the Same as the Job?
No. A job description is the hiring document a board writes before a search: the duties of an executive director for a nonprofit organization, the qualifications and the reporting line. The job itself is how those duties play out week to week, which depends on the budget, the staff and the board you inherit.
If your board is writing or updating one, our guide to the non profit organization executive director job description walks through each section.
Where Can an Executive Director Get Support?
Start inside the organization with a monthly board chair check-in and one honest conversation about which duties are crowding out the rest. Outside it, a peer group, a mentor or a coach gives the executive director a place to think apart from the board, the staff and the funders.
A quick win for this week: write down the one duty you would hand off first, and tell the board chair what it would take.
Center for Nonprofit Coaching volunteer coaches donate their time, which is why six one-to-one sessions cost $300, $400 or $600 depending on your operating budget (under $250K, $250K to $500K, or over $500K a year), 85%+ below market rate. The sessions help an executive director see patterns in delegation and board communication. For the longer view, read about the executive director career, stage by stage. When you are ready, start an application.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who does the executive director of a non profit report to?
To the board of directors as a body. The board chair is the main contact between meetings, and the full board hires, evaluates and, when necessary, removes the executive director.
Is an executive director the same as a CEO?
In most nonprofits, yes. Executive director, president and CEO name the same chief staff role, and the responsibilities stay the same whatever the title.
Can the executive director serve on the board?
In most states it is legal, and the safer form is a seat without a vote. In BoardSource’s 2015 Leading with Intent survey, 50% of the chief executives surveyed were not board members, 38% served ex officio without a vote and 12% had a vote. BoardSource recommends the nonvoting seat, though California does not treat a member without a vote as a director. Check your bylaws and ask a nonprofit attorney.
Who hires and evaluates the executive director?
The board. It hires the executive director, agrees the goals for the year and runs an annual performance review, often through the board chair or an executive committee.
Decide What to Carry and What to Hand Off
Executive directors of small nonprofits get a confidential place to think. Six sessions with a volunteer coach cost $300 to $600, 85%+ below market rate.
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