Questions to Ask in an Executive Director Interview
These are questions to ask when interviewing for an executive director position at a nonprofit, written for the candidate and put to the board or its search committee: the people hiring you, and the people you would answer to afterward. They follow the order the conversation usually takes: why the job is open and what the board is hiring for, the true state of the finances, how the board works with its director, the staff you would inherit, the first year, and the terms of the offer. The vacancy and first-year questions suit a first interview, while the requests for documents and the contract questions wait until you are a finalist.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The vacancy
Why did the last executive director leave, and how long were they in the job?
Why ask it
A retirement after twelve years and a resignation after eighteen months are two different jobs to walk into. Listen for whether every member of the committee tells the story the same way, and ask what the board learned from the departure. If the account is vague or puts all the blame on the person, get a second version from a former staff member or a funder before you accept.
What does the board see as the biggest challenge facing the organization right now?
Why ask it
Put it to the room and watch who answers and who nods. If the treasurer says cash and the chair says visibility, the board has not settled what it is hiring you to fix. Whatever they name, ask how long it has been true and what has already been tried.
What did the last director do well that you want kept, and what do you want done differently?
Why ask it
The first half is what staff and funders will measure you against, and the second is the board's real brief for the search. Notice whether the changes on their list are things a director controls, or things like board giving and thin reserves that belong to the people across the table.
How many executive directors has the organization had in the past ten years?
Why ask it
Count them with the committee if nobody knows offhand. Three or four in a decade points at something that outlasts each director, most often the board itself or the money, so ask what the departures had in common. A single long tenure brings its own problem: nobody now on the board may ever have hired or supervised a new director.
Is the board hiring someone to grow the organization, to steady it or to turn it around?
Why ask it
Those are three different jobs, and a posting rarely says which one this is. If the committee answers 'all three', ask which comes first and what the budget allows. Say plainly which of them you are best at, since a builder hired into a rescue is a poor bargain for both sides.
Who has been running the organization since the last director left?
Why ask it
Ask what that person found, and what they go back to when you arrive. An interim brought in from outside can usually speak freely about the state of things. A staff or board member who covered the role may have wanted it, and may have made decisions you would be expected to keep or to undo.
Did anyone on the staff or the board apply for this job, and what happens if they are not chosen?
Why ask it
You would be supervising a disappointed colleague, or answering to one, from the first day. A committee that has already worked out how to tell that person and what to offer them is easier to work for than one hearing the problem for the first time from you.
Will the outgoing director stay involved afterward, as a board member, a paid consultant or in any other role?
Why ask it
Handover calls for the first few weeks are a help. What to watch for is a predecessor who keeps a board seat or their own line to the funders, because staff can end up unsure whose word counts. If a role is planned, ask how long it lasts and who can end it.
Is the founder still involved, and how much say do they have today?
Why ask it
Skip this where the founder is long gone. Where one is still on the board, on staff or close to the largest donors, ask for an example of a decision that went against their wishes. If nobody can think of one, find out how the last director fared when the two of them disagreed.
How united is the board on the kind of director it is looking for?
Why ask it
A search can cover up a split between members who want a fundraiser and members who want a program expert or a steady manager. Ask what the committee argued about when it wrote the job description. A hire made on a narrow vote starts with part of the board still unconvinced.
The money
Did the last fiscal year end with a surplus or a deficit, and how is this year running against budget?
Why ask it
Ask for the figure, not an adjective. One planned deficit to launch something is a choice, while a string of them is a slow emergency that would become yours to explain. If the committee cannot say how the current year stands, you have learned how closely the board reads its financial reports.
How many months of operating expenses are held in unrestricted reserves?
Why ask it
The word that matters is unrestricted: money promised to a particular program cannot make payroll in a thin month. Ask where the number stood two years ago as well, since the direction says more than the level. Very low reserves need not rule the job out, but they turn your first year into a cash exercise.
What share of income comes from the three largest funders, and when is each up for renewal?
Why ask it
A grant or government contract that carries a third of the budget and expires in your first year is the real job description. Ask who holds each of those relationships now, and whether the departing director was the person the funder trusted.
Could I see the latest audit or financial review, the most recent annual filing and this year's financials to date before a final interview?
Why ask it
It is a reasonable request from a finalist for the top job, and a board that hesitates over it is telling you something. Read the auditor's notes and any letter to management, not only the totals, and bring two or three questions from them to the next round. Which documents exist depends on the organization's size and where it is registered, so ask what it produces.
Does the organization carry any debt or a line of credit, and who has signed for it?
Why ask it
Money borrowed in a slow month and paid back when a grant lands is ordinary housekeeping, and a line that has stayed drawn for a year is debt under another name. Ask whether any board member or past director gave a personal guarantee, and whether the next director would be asked for one.
Has money given for one program ever been spent on general costs, and has it been put back?
Why ask it
It feels rude to ask and it is worth asking anyway. Borrowing from restricted funds tends to surface as a painful conversation with a funder, and the new director is the one who has to hold it. If the answer is yes, ask for the amount and for the plan to restore it.
Who keeps the books and prepares the financial reports, and who on the board reads them closely?
Why ask it
The answer tells you how much of the finance work would land on the director. Where a part-time bookkeeper produces the reports and the board approves them unread, you are the finance department as well, so be honest with yourself about how comfortable you are with the numbers. Ask to talk to the treasurer before the final round.
How does cash move through the year, and is there a month when payroll gets tight?
Why ask it
A balanced annual budget can still hide a February with nothing in the bank, particularly where a contract pays only after the work is done. Ask what was done the last time it happened: a delayed bill, a drawn credit line, a call to a donor. That is the playbook you would inherit.
What is this year's fundraising goal, and how much of it is already committed?
Why ask it
The gap between the two figures is what you would be expected to find, possibly in your first months. Ask how the goal was set, because a number chosen to make the budget balance is a hope, and one built from named donors and renewals is a forecast.
Is anything open that could cost money nobody has budgeted for: a lawsuit, a complaint, an overdue filing, a funder's audit?
Why ask it
You are asking so that nothing reaches you first as a letter in your third week. A plain yes with details and a plan is manageable. If the committee is unsure, ask who would know, and for anything serious have a lawyer who works with nonprofits in that place explain what it would mean for the person in the director's chair.
The board
What brought each of you onto this board, and what keeps you on it?
Why ask it
Board members are usually volunteers, and their reasons show what they will give time to: a personal tie to the cause, a seat a funder asked them to take, a favor to the founder. It is an easy way into the board part of the conversation and gets the quiet members talking. Notice how long each has served, and whether anyone is staying only because no replacement has been found.
Where does the board's job end and the executive director's begin?
Why ask it
Nearly every board will say that it governs and the director manages. Ask for the last time that line was tested, such as a board member wanting a say in a hire or a program decision, and what happened next. Judge by the story, not the principle.
What can the director decide without a board vote: hiring and letting staff go, signing contracts, spending within the approved budget?
Why ask it
Ask whether the limits are written into the bylaws or a policy, and ask for the dollar figure above which a contract needs approval. If the last director had to bring routine hires to the board, find out whether that was a rule or a habit, since a habit can be renegotiated before you start.
Does every board member give money, and how much does the board raise as a group in a year?
Why ask it
Some funders ask whether the whole board gives, so the answer can affect grant applications as well as the budget. A board that neither gives nor asks has left fundraising to one person, and that person would be you. Ask whether the expectation is written down for new members.
How much of the fundraising would I carry personally, and is there development staff to work with?
Why ask it
Get this as a share of your week. Half your time on donors with no development director behind you is a different job from one with a team that books the meetings and writes the proposals. If the board expects a big lift in giving, ask what it will add: staff, a database, or its own introductions.
How will my performance be evaluated, by whom, and against which goals?
Why ask it
Then ask when the last director was last reviewed. A board that skipped it for years will tend to judge you on impressions and on whatever went wrong most recently. Asking that written goals for the first year be agreed within your first couple of months is a fair condition to raise.
Who will be board chair for my first two years, and how often would the two of us talk?
Why ask it
The chair is the nearest thing a director has to a boss, and chairs change. If the person who hired you steps down within months, ask who follows and whether you can meet them now. A standing call every week or two keeps both sides current, and no routine at all tends to mean surprises in both directions.
How often does the board meet, how many seats are filled, and how many members usually turn up?
Why ask it
Empty seats and thin attendance mean you would be rebuilding the board while reporting to it. Ask which committees are active, and whether finance and governance meet between board meetings or exist only on paper. Ask too how new members are found, because recruiting can fall quietly to the director.
Do board members deal with staff directly, and what happens when an employee takes a complaint to one of them?
Why ask it
Friendly contact on a committee or at an event is normal. What you are listening for is whether someone unhappy with your decision could get it reopened by phoning a board member. Ask if there is a written grievance or whistleblower route, and who it runs to.
Would I attend every board meeting and closed session, and does the director have a seat or a vote?
Why ask it
Arrangements differ by organization and by what the bylaws and local law allow, so ask how it works here and read the bylaws yourself. The practical point is whether the board regularly discusses the organization without its director present, and how you would hear what was said.
What was the last serious disagreement on the board, and how was it settled?
Why ask it
A board that claims it never disagrees is either not discussing anything important or not telling you. A good answer includes what the argument was about, that a vote was taken, and that the losing side stayed on. An unsettled fight tends to recruit the new director as an ally.
The staff
How many people are on staff, and which of them would report directly to me?
Why ask it
Ask for an organization chart with each person's years of service on it. Eight direct reports and no deputy means your days belong to supervision, while a strong second-in-command frees you for the board and the funders. Check how many roles are part time or filled by contractors.
How would the staff describe what it is like to work here?
Why ask it
Board members may see the staff only at meetings and events, so what you get is the board's impression. The useful part is where that impression comes from: exit interviews, a staff survey, or only the last director's reports. Hold it up against what the senior staff tell you when you meet them.
How many staff have left in the past two years, and which departure cost the organization the most?
Why ask it
Numbers first, then reasons. Departures bunched around the last director's final year say something about how that tenure ended. If the person who left kept the grant calendar or the main donor relationships in their head, ask what was written down.
How did the staff take the last director's leaving, and what are they hoping for in the next one?
Why ask it
A team that misses a much-loved leader and a team that is relieved need opposite first months from you. Ask how the committee knows which it is: a survey, a staff member on the search, or guesswork.
Will I meet the senior staff before a decision is made, and do they have any say in it?
Why ask it
Meeting them lets you check the board's account against the people who live with it. If the search has been kept from the staff entirely, ask why, and expect to start with a team that feels the choice was made over their heads.
Is there any personnel matter waiting for the new director, such as an open complaint or a performance problem nobody has dealt with?
Why ask it
Boards sometimes leave the hard conversation for the next person. Knowing beforehand lets you ask what backing you would have, and whether the person concerned has friends on the board. Do not expect names in an interview: ask for the outline now and the detail once you are the finalist.
How does staff pay compare with similar organizations in the area, and when was the last raise?
Why ask it
Pay that has stood still for years is a debt the new director is asked to settle with no new money. If the board knows it is low, ask whether it has agreed in principle to fix it, because you will be the one standing in front of the staff either way.
First year
What are the three things the board most wants done in my first twelve months?
Why ask it
Put this to more than one person if you can. The lists may not match, and where they differ is where you would be pulled in two directions. Then ask which of the three they would drop if money or time ran short, and once an offer comes, ask for the list in writing so your first review has something to be measured against.
Is there a current strategic plan, and am I expected to carry it out or lead the next one?
Why ask it
Ask to read it before the final round. If the board approved it last year and loves it, there is little room for a direction of your own, and you should say so if that is a problem. If it has expired, your first year includes running a planning process on top of the urgent items on their list.
What decision has been left waiting for the new director?
Why ask it
There is often one: a lease, a program that loses money, a staff restructure, a merger conversation. You want to know its deadline and whether the board already has a preferred answer. If it does, the decision is theirs and only the announcement would be yours.
Which program is the board proudest of, and which would be hardest to defend to a funder?
Why ask it
The second half is the useful part. A weak program that a board member or the founder started is the hardest kind to close, so ask what evidence the board would need before it agreed to change or end one.
How do funders, partner organizations and the people you serve see the organization right now?
Why ask it
Reputation is something you inherit on the first day and cannot check from inside the interview room. If the answer is all praise, ask about the last complaint or lost grant. Then make two or three quiet calls of your own to people in that field before the final round.
Which funders, partners and public officials would I need to meet in the first ninety days, and who makes the introductions?
Why ask it
Relationships the last director held personally do not transfer by themselves. A board that offers to walk you in to its five largest donors is doing its share. If nobody on the committee can name who you should meet first, the handover has not been planned yet.
What would the handover include: written procedures, account access, bank signatures, time with the outgoing director or interim?
Why ask it
Dull, and it decides what your first month feels like. Ask who has signing authority today and who holds the logins for the donor database and the payroll system. If the answer is one person who has already left, raise it before your start date.
A year in, what would make you feel you had hired the wrong person?
Why ask it
Asked warmly, this gets the committee's fears onto the table: a director who alienates long-serving staff, misses the budget, or keeps things from the board. Each fear usually has a history behind it, so follow up by asking whether it has happened here.
Is there anything in my background that gives you pause about me in this role?
Why ask it
A doubt you hear in the room is one you can still answer, and one you never hear gets discussed after you have left. A candidate who has not been a director before is often doubted on fundraising or finance, and one specific example does more than reassurance. If the committee says there is nothing, ask what the board members who are not present will want to know about you.
The offer
What is the salary range, and how did the board arrive at it?
Why ask it
How the figure was reached tells you how much room is in it. One built from what organizations of similar budget in the same region pay can be defended and usually has some give, while the last director's salary carried forward may not have been looked at in years. Raise it before the final round so that neither side is surprised.
Will there be a written employment agreement, and what would it say about its term, renewal and how either side can end it?
Why ask it
Practice varies widely: some directors have a contract running several years, others an offer letter and nothing more. What the choices are and what each means depends on where the job is, so have an employment lawyer in that place read whatever is offered before you sign. Asking for the terms in writing is ordinary at this level and should not offend anyone.
If the board ended the arrangement early without cause, what notice or severance would apply?
Why ask it
Give your reason as you raise it: the director is the one employee who answers to a group whose membership changes, and a new chair may want a new director. If nothing is offered, ask whether the board would consider a notice period, and take local advice on what is usual and what can be enforced.
What benefits come with the job, including health coverage, retirement contributions and paid leave?
Why ask it
A small organization can offer its director less than a larger employer offers junior staff, and that is easy to miss while looking at the salary. Ask whether the director gets the same package as everyone else, and put a value on anything missing when you compare the offer with what you have now.
When is the director's pay reviewed, and who decides on a raise?
Why ask it
Where the last director went years without an evaluation, the pay has probably sat still too, and nobody on the board owns the task. Ask which committee or officer handles it and in which month, and whether a raise follows from the review or from whatever the budget has left.
Does the organization carry directors and officers liability insurance, and does it cover the executive director?
Why ask it
Ask to see the policy summary, including what it excludes and whether employment claims are covered. What a director can be held personally responsible for differs from place to place, so treat the board's answer as a starting point and check it with a broker or lawyer who knows the local rules.
Is there a budget for the director's own coaching, training or peer network?
Why ask it
The director's seat has no colleagues at the same level inside the building, which is why a first-time director in particular benefits from a coach or a peer group. A modest line for it costs the organization little and shows the board means to invest in you, not only to measure you.
Which evenings and weekends does the job claim, and how much of the work has to be done on site?
Why ask it
Board meetings, committee meetings, galas and community events mostly fall outside office hours, and the director is expected at nearly all of them. Ask for last year's calendar. It lets you and anyone at home judge the real shape of the week before you agree to it.
What happens next, who else would I meet, and when does the board expect to vote?
Why ask it
Ask whether the hire needs a vote of the full board, because then the timeline depends on when it next meets. Ask too whether finalists meet staff, funders or the whole board, and use the wait to read the documents you requested and make your own calls.
How to question a board that is also interviewing you
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Reading to do before you ask anything
Read what is public first
Many nonprofits publish an annual report, a board list and some financial information, and in some countries the annual filing with the tax or charity regulator is open to anyone. Read whatever exists for the last three years before the first interview: income rising or falling, the size of the reserves, how often the names on the board list change. Your money questions can then start from a figure you have seen.
Find out who will be in the room
A search may be run by a committee of board members, by the full board, by a search firm, or by a mix that includes a staff or community seat. Ask whoever schedules you who will attend and what each person's role is. The treasurer is the one for the money questions and the chair for authority and evaluation. A search consultant can sometimes speak about the last director more freely than board members can.
Pick the answers that would end it for you
Decide beforehand which answers would make you withdraw: no reserves and no plan, a founder with a veto, a board that will not show its financials. Put those questions early enough in the process that you do not spend a month on a job you would turn down.
Which group fits which round
First interview: The vacancy and First year
Early on, the committee is deciding whether you understand the organization. Questions from The vacancy and First year show that you do, and the answers shape what you say in later rounds. One money question is enough at this stage, and the one about unrestricted reserves is the most telling.
Second round: The money and The board
Once you are one of a few, detailed questions about deficits, restricted funds and board giving read as diligence and not as presumption. Ask for the audit and the current financials now, so that you can bring questions about them to the final conversation.
Finalist: documents, The staff and The offer
When the board has told you that you are its choice, or one of two, ask for the bylaws, the last few sets of board minutes, the budget and the organization chart, and ask to meet the senior staff. The questions under The offer belong here. Have the terms agreed in writing before you resign from the job you hold.
Put one question to two people
Ask different members, at different stages, why the last director left and what the first-year priorities are. Matching answers mean the board has talked it through. Answers that differ are not necessarily dishonest, but they mark the places where the board has not yet agreed with itself.
What a board's answers show
Figures against adjectives
'We are in a strong position' is an adjective. 'Four months of unrestricted cash and a surplus two years running' is a figure. A board that answers money questions with numbers reads its reports. One that answers with reassurance may be leaving the finances to whoever sits in the director's chair.
Who does the answering
Notice whether one member answers everything while the others look on, and whether anyone adds to or corrects what was said. A committee where several people speak, and now and then disagree in front of you, is showing you a working board. Deference to a single voice tells you whose approval the director really needs.
How the hard ones land
Asking about restricted funds, severance or the founder is a small trial of the relationship you would have. A board that answers plainly, or says it will find out and then does, is one you could bring bad news to. Irritation at a fair question from a finalist deserves a lot of weight.
The list against the budget
Compare what the board wants done in the first year with the staff and money on hand to do it. Doubling donations, launching a program and rebuilding the team in twelve months with no new resources is a wish list, and it is better to say so in the interview than at your first review.
Mistakes candidates make at this level
Auditioning and forgetting to inspect
Wanting the job makes it tempting to spend every minute showing you can do it. The board is also part of what you are being asked to take on, along with its reserves, its habits and its history. A director who learns about the deficit in the second month had a chance to ask about it in the interview.
Saving the money questions until after the offer
By then you have told people, pictured yourself in the office and lost most of your willingness to walk away. Ask about reserves, deficits and reliance on a few funders while you are still one candidate among several and can hear the answers coolly.
Taking the committee's word alone
The people interviewing you have a vacancy to fill and a natural wish to show the organization at its best. Talk to someone outside the search as well: a former staff member, a funder, a director of a similar organization. Tell the committee you plan to, since a confident board will offer names.
Negotiating the salary and nothing else
Salary is one term among several in a director's offer. Written goals for the first year, the date of the first evaluation, notice or severance, a coaching budget and the predecessor's future role are all easier to settle before you start than after, and several of them cost the organization nothing.