Nonprofit Job Description Templates

Job Description Library

Write a job description that reflects the work you need done. These resources help nonprofit boards, hiring managers and search committees define responsibilities, set realistic qualifications, and prepare an opening for publication.

Start with the role, then adapt the description to your organization's staff, programs, funding and leadership structure. A small community organization and a national nonprofit may use the same title while needing very different things from the person they hire.

Eight sections of a nonprofit CEO job description. Position summary: three or four sentences covering mission, reporting line and accountability. Reporting and structure: board relationship, direct reports, staff size and budget. Core responsibilities: grouped by strategy, finance, fundraising, people, programs and external voice. First-year priorities: what has to be true in twelve months. Qualifications: required separated from preferred. Compensation: a published range. Location and work pattern: on-site, hybrid or remote, with travel. How to apply: where it goes, what to send and what happens next. — What belongs in a nonprofit executive job description. Download the one-page reference sheet (PDF).

Customize your role with our job description builder. It assembles a tailored prompt and editable templates from your answers; review what it gives you before you post.

Start with your chief executive role

Nonprofit CEO job description
A complete sample covering mission, board partnership, organizational leadership, fundraising, financial oversight and candidate qualifications. Includes adaptations for smaller organizations and for organizations with established leadership teams.
View the nonprofit CEO job description

Executive director, development director, CFO, COO and program director descriptions are in preparation.

Make the description your own

Describe the organization: mission, communities served, annual operating budget, staff and geographic reach.
Define the authority: who the person reports to, who reports to them, and which decisions require board approval.
Set practical expectations: first-year priorities, work setting, travel, compensation and available resources.
Choose relevant qualifications: separate essential experience from preferences, and allow equivalent experience where it fits.

Three ways to narrow it down

The right description depends on more than the title. Find yours along three dimensions.

Dimension one

Role

Chief executive first, then executive director, development director, CFO, COO and program director. The starting point, and the least decisive of the three.

Dimension two

Organization type

Foundation, human services, arts and culture, education, membership association. Funding model and regulatory load change what the role is accountable for.

Dimension three

Organizational scope

Six tiers, the same ones the builder uses, so a template and a generated draft describe the same organization:

Emerging or smallunder $2M, 1 to 15 staff. Player-coach.
Growing$2M to $10M, 15 to 50 staff. Department builder.
Established regional$10M to $25M, 50 to 150 staff. Manager of managers.
Multi-site or multi-state$25M to $100M, 150 to 500 staff.
National$100M to $500M, 500 to 2,000 staff.
Major national or internationalover $500M, more than 2,000 staff.

Scope changes the job more than the title does

Budget alone is a poor guide. What actually changes the responsibilities is staff size, how much of the funding is restricted, how many programs run at once, and how much operational work the executive personally carries. A chief executive with four staff and one government contract is doing different work from one with sixty staff and a development team, whatever either title says.

Where a role changes materially at a different scale, the description says so rather than leaving you to guess.

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Ready to recruit

Once your description is ready, publish your opening on ExecSearches.com. Give candidates a clear picture of the opportunity and a direct way to apply.

Post your nonprofit job