Working in nonprofits can be incredibly rewarding. However, it can be difficult to navigate the nonprofit industry if you’re not familiar with common nonprofit job titles and roles. But that’s where this guide comes in handy.
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Working in nonprofits can be incredibly rewarding. It may even feel like a dream—you get paid to make a difference, fueling your passion and paying your bills.
However, it can be difficult to navigate the nonprofit industry if you’re not familiar with common nonprofit job titles and roles. But that’s where this guide comes in handy.
In this post, we’ll provide an overview of various nonprofit job titles and breakdown their descriptions so that you can gain insight into potential roles you might be interested in pursuing.
Let’s get started!
You may know you want to work in the nonprofit sector, but you’re not sure where to start or what positions are available.
Typically, nonprofit jobs will be focused on several key areas, including, but not limited to:
Knowing titles and job descriptions can make it easier to find career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. It can also help you understand an organization once you’re there.
Either way, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the nonprofit industry once you’re armed with the knowledge of different jobs and what they entail.
Executive nonprofit positions are the highest in an organization and require years of experience.
Below we break down two of the most important roles at a nonprofit organization—the Executive Director and board members.
The Executive Director is the highest-ranking person at a nonprofit.
They will be highly regarded in their field, often with decades of experience leading other for- or nonprofit organizations. They should be passionate about the mission of the nonprofit they lead because they will set the tone for the organization moving forward.
Executive Directors are often recruited, though sometimes you can find the listings publicly available. If you are looking for an Executive Director role, you should possess the following skills and qualities.
Good nonprofit leaders, just like in business, are highly sought after because they can steward an organization, translating vision into strategy and guiding the nonprofit to success.
As an example, check out the job summary below created by United Way of White County in their search for an Executive Director.
A nonprofit’s Board of Directors helps govern the organization, providing guidance and oversight to promote the organization’s well-being. The board votes on new programs, hires executive leadership, approves budgets, and more.
To be successful as a board member, you need to possess the following.
Board positions are almost always volunteer positions, meaning they are unpaid. In fact, board members often make substantial donations to support the nonprofit’s operations.
Program management and administration roles help oversee specific projects and initiatives, managing the behind-the-scenes work to ensure operations are properly executed.
Many nonprofits have various projects going on at the same time, which is why a program manager role is so important. They lead these projects from end to end, ensuring the objectives are met while also staying within the scope of the project.
If there are any regulations that need to be followed, the program manager is responsible for adhering to them, as well as helping guide the program to success. They can even help recruit and oversee volunteers to ensure projects are fully staffed.
The skills and competencies that make a program manager successful are:
Program managers will typically have at least four years of experience in relevant fields.
Here’s an example of a project manager job description for Habitat for Humanity.
Program coordinators are a great entry-level position for individuals looking to start out in the nonprofit world.
This role often assists a program manager with specific tasks while also helping to provide day-to-day support to all involved with different projects. Program coordinators can help oversee volunteers, be on-site to assist with events, manage accounts payable, and more.
To be successful as a program coordinator, you should have the following skills and competencies.
Program coordinator positions often require a few years of experience and a college degree, though many organizations will accept translatable skills.
Fundraising and Development Nonprofit Job Titles and Their Roles
If your organization depends on donor dollars to fund a majority of its operations, then fundraising and development positions will be among the most important.
Here are two of the most common fundraising roles within a nonprofit organization.
The Director of Development is responsible for creating a development plan for an organization and executing it. They help ensure that there is funding to bring the nonprofit’s mission to life.
The actual day-to-day responsibilities of a Director of Development will depend on the specific organization and its fundraising needs.
Here are some key skills and qualities needed to be successful in a development role:
Director of development positions will often require five years or more of professional fundraising experience, though even more experience is preferred.
Grant writers are critical members of a nonprofit’s staff because they help secure funding that makes a lot of great work possible.
Grant writers do a lot of funder research, identifying prospects and writing applications to secure financial support for the organization.
Grant writing is an art—it’s more than just filling out an application. There is nuance to knowing how to navigate the grants-world, and to be successful, you need to possess the following skills and competencies.
Grant writers should be able to thoughtfully translate facts and data to tell the world why their organization deserves funding.
As an example, check out the screenshot below that lists the key responsibilities for CureSearch for Children’s Cancer grant coordinator position.
Communications and Marketing Nonprofit Job Titles and Their Roles
Communications and marketing nonprofit jobs help oversee branding strategies and help get your nonprofit’s message out into the world.
These roles often also manage outreach and help foster community engagement.
The Director of Communication sets the strategy for how your nonprofit organization connects with the world around it.
They will also help their team execute strategies to maximize the impact of communications.
The Director of Communications is responsible for all communication efforts, including emails, letters, website content, social media, videos, advertising, and more. The scope of the role depends on the size of the organization.
Some of the skills and competencies you need to be successful in this role include:
A Director of Communications role often requires 10+ years of communications experience.
Social media can play a critical role in how nonprofits show up in the world around them.
Social media managers help maintain an organization’s image and share its story, growing its digital footprint while advancing its mission and vision.
Social media managers are responsible for overseeing digital strategies to drive engagement across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. Additional responsibilities may also extend to creating digital branding and advertising campaigns while integrating SEO in all to optimize performance.
Here are some skills and competencies that can help you succeed in this type of role:
Social media is about more than just sharing a few things online. You need a strategy and a method behind the madness to be effective.
The screenshot below is a job summary for a social media content creator at Charity: Water.
Support Staff Nonprofit Job Titles and Their Roles
Oftentimes, support staff roles make the magic happen, ensuring others are able to do their jobs effectively.
These are some of the most important—and often overlooked—positions.
Administrative assistants help support the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit as a whole or of a specific function.
This could include calendar management, answering phones, planning meetings, running reports, filing, and other duties as assigned. Roles and responsibilities will vary from nonprofit to nonprofit.
There are some key skills and qualities that an aspiring administrative assistant should possess. These include:
You may own projects as an administrative assistant, but primarily, you will play a support role for multiple projects at any given time.
Much like an administrative assistant, an executive assistant is another supporting role within a nonprofit organization with one key exception. An executive assistant typically supports leadership rather than the general organization. Some executive assistants may support multiple leaders, while others only focus on one.
Whatever that leader needs, the executive assistant helps with. This can include scheduling, pulling reports, writing communications, and more. The day-to-day responsibilities vary, and to be successful, you should possess the following:
At the end of the day, executive assistants are critical to the success of leadership at a nonprofit organization.
Wrapping Up: Next Steps to Take
This is just the start of nonprofit job titles, so if you’re serious about taking the next step, there are several different ways that you can break into the field.
Volunteer with the organization you’d like to work for. That can be a fantastic way to make connections and be ready when a position opens up. Network with others in the industry. And lastly—simply take the plunge!
Nonprofit organization positions can be incredibly rewarding, so what are you waiting for? Put your skills to good use at a nonprofit!
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