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Nonprofit Job Description Templates

Job Description Library

Define the Role. Advance the Mission. Inspire the Right Candidate.

A great nonprofit job description does more than describe the work that needs to be done. It helps define the future an organization hopes to create and the person who can help make that future possible.

In nonprofit executive search, developing a position description often begins long before anyone starts writing. It begins with understanding the organization’s mission, its culture, its challenges, its leadership needs, and where it hopes to go.

Sometimes that involves extensive conversations with board members, staff, volunteers, and community stakeholders. Other times, a few thoughtful conversations are enough. Every organization is different, and we don’t presume to tell you which process is right for yours.

What matters is understanding not only what you need someone to do, but what you hope that person will help your organization accomplish.

Our free job description templates and AI-assisted Job Description Builder can help you get started. They address many of the essential elements of a position, including responsibilities, qualifications, reporting relationships, organizational scope, and expectations for success.

We’re constantly working to improve these resources. But we don’t believe AI tools or templates are the be-all and end-all of developing an important position description. Nor should they be.

There’s much more to a nonprofit position than its duties and qualifications. There’s the heart of your organization.

There’s your mission, the communities you serve, the values that guide your decisions, and the future you’re working to create.

A good position description helps you evaluate a candidate’s qualifications. A great one also reaches the candidate’s heart, helping the right person understand why the opportunity matters.

Our tools provide the framework. You bring the mission, the vision, and the soul.

And if you’d appreciate some experienced guidance along the way, our colleague Karen Alphonse can help you think through your organization’s leadership needs and the opportunities ahead.

Further reading

The templates provide the bones. You provide the soul. A better nonprofit job description starts with five things: mission, what change you are trying to create; community, who you serve and how; leadership, what kind of person will succeed here; future, what you hope this hire will make possible; and clarity, so responsibilities, qualifications and impact all align. Explore the Nonprofit Job Description Builder at Nonprofit-Jobs.org.
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

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

Make the description your own

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.

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