Books / The First 90 Days of a Nonprofit Executive Director
The First 90 Days of a Nonprofit Executive Director
by Steve Kennedy
Listen. Assess. Organize.
A new executive director's first ninety days, one week at a time, especially for one following a founder, and for the board chair who supervises them. Listen to everyone, assess the money, compliance, people and programs, and report to the board on Day 90 with a plan it can fund. Each week has a short story from an invented nonprofit facing the same problem you are, the work in plain steps with the reason behind each one, the mistakes people make, and five things to have done by Friday.
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Thirteen weeks
Listen · Days 1 to 28
- Week 1Before You Change Anything
- Week 2Listening to the Staff
- Week 3Listening to the Board
- Week 4Listening Outside the Building
Assess · Days 29 to 63
- Week 5The Money
- Week 6Compliance and Risk
- Week 7People and Pay
- Week 8Programs and Results
- Week 9Where Everything Lives
Organize · Days 64 to 90
- Week 10Three Priorities, and What Waits
- Week 11The Operating Rhythm
- Week 12The Team and the Founder
- Week 13Day 90: The Report to the Board
A sample: how Week 1 begins
Week 1: Before You Change Anything. The story.
Jordan Ellis arrived at the Mill Street storefront at 7:30 on the first Monday in March, an hour before opening, expecting to have the place to himself.
Tess Navarro was already there, at the truing stand by the front window, in a canvas apron with a spoke wrench in her hand. She had founded Wheelhouse in her garage four years earlier, run it as its first executive director for two, and then asked the board for something nobody expected: to go back to the shop floor. The board had made her Shop Director and hired Jordan to run everything else. As of this morning, the founder worked for him.
Jordan had rehearsed this moment for weeks. He had not rehearsed the coffee. Tess handed him a paper cup from the shop's old drip machine, pointed at a stool, and said, "Ask me anything. Then I'm going to fix bikes, and you're going to run this."
What comes with the book
- The 90-day checklist: every "Before Friday" list in one file.
- A printable 13-week calendar.
- First 90 days plan template, to agree with the board chair.
- One-on-one listening guide: the three questions, and a page for notes.
- Board chair meeting agenda.
- Cash look-ahead (Excel), thirteen weeks.
- Compliance and insurance inventory.
- Staff file checklist.
- Systems and access inventory.
- Operating rhythm calendar.
- Day 90 report template, in four parts.
- Download every file from the book's bonus page; the link is in Appendix D.
- Works on paper, in a spreadsheet or in any system you use now. Each week ends with a short note on where All In One Nonprofit does that week's work.
- General guidance, not legal, tax or accounting advice.
Free on an annual plan
Organizations on a paid annual plan of All In One Nonprofit get every book in the series free, inside the platform. The book's offer: the code FIRST90 takes 20 percent off the first year of an annual plan. See the plans at https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/pricing/.
About the author
Steve Kennedy is the founder of All In One Nonprofit. He has served volunteer-run organizations for decades, as a director, as president and as the person everyone called when the tools were too technical. More about Steve
The whole series
Six books, for the founder, the board, the executive director, the treasurer, the development director and the consultant: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/books/