Interview guides

Non-profit Professionals

Spot mission-driven talent with fundraising, communication, and teamwork strengths.

Data Management & Administration

Organization & Communication

  • How would you describe your organizational and communication skills? Examples?
  • Are you self-motivated and flexible with multi-tasking?

Member & Donor Relations

  • What involvement have you had with members/donors/volunteers?
  • Provide an example of showing diplomacy/professionalism.
  • What strategies have you used to attract and retain members/donors?

Digital Tools & Databases

  • Have you managed websites or social media? What impact did they have?
  • Have you worked with AMS/CRM systems? Which ones?
  • What CMS platforms have you used?
  • Have you reconfigured or cleaned up databases? What was the impact?
  • What role did you play with grants (tracking deliverables, liaising)?
  • How do you show appreciation to your community?

Reputation & Reviews

  • Have you managed online reputation (Google, Yelp, etc.)?
  • Did you encourage members to post positive reviews?
Executive Level Roles

President / CEO / Executive Director

Leadership & Governance

  • Tell me about your career and how it relates to this role.
  • Tell us about your philosophy or style when it comes to Board governance.
  • What were the Board’s greatest accomplishments during your tenure?
  • To what extent have you been involved in the election, recruitment, or orientation process of new Board Members?

Strategy & Organizational Growth

  • Tell us about your leadership style in working with the Board of Directors to develop the Strategic Plan, and working with staff in developing operational plans.
  • How did you tackle efforts to grow your organization? Provide specific examples.
  • What areas of organizational development did you take the lead on? (membership development, fundraising initiatives, stakeholder relations, etc.)
  • How closely did you work with each department to ensure objectives were being met?
  • What metrics did you use to assess the success of each objective?

Finance & Operations

  • What types of reports (strategic plan update, financial reports, current issues, committee progress, risk management, etc.) did you generate for the Board?
  • What is your level of experience with developing organizational budgets? For what size of organization?
  • How frequently did you review budget performance?
  • How have you ensured budget compliance across departments or the organization?
  • Do you have any experience with reserve management?
  • Have you managed an external audit?

Risk & Crisis Management

  • What experience do you have ensuring compliance to organizational policies and procedures?
  • How do you ensure policies stay current with industry standards?
  • Have you acted as the official spokesperson for a non-profit organization?
  • If yes: Did you experience crisis management situations? How did you handle them? What steps did you implement afterwards to prevent recurrence?

Vice President / Senior Director

Governance & Board Relations

  • Outline your previous experience working with a Board of Directors and Executive Director/President.
  • Explain a time you dealt directly with the Board without the involvement of the ED/President. What was the outcome?

Leadership Engagement

  • Describe a business situation where you faced difficult choices and had to decide whether to speak up.
  • How have you implemented constructive feedback received about yourself?
  • What are your thoughts on workplace culture? How do you instill accountability?
  • In what context have you had to put humanity and compassion ahead of accountability?
  • Do leaders need to make sacrifices to retain great people?
  • How have you shared credit for success and shouldered responsibility for failure?
Finance & Operations

Professional Experience

  • Do you have finance experience in non-profits?
  • Do you hold certifications (CPA, CFA, etc.)?

Compliance & Governance

  • Do you have experience with tax planning, CRA reporting, bylaws, compliance with NFP laws?
  • How do you stay current with changing compliance requirements?

Budgeting & Reporting

  • Provide examples of managing revenue, expenditures, forecasting.
  • Have you created budgets for Board approval?
  • How closely did you work with fundraising/other departments on budgets?
  • Have you prepared financial reports (month-end, quarterly, year-end)?
  • Have you participated in a non-profit audit?

Payroll & Tools

  • Have you managed payroll? How many employees and what schedule?
  • What accounting systems are you proficient in (QuickBooks, Sage, cloud-based NFP platforms)?
Fundraising / Sponsorship / Advancement

Campaigns & Donors

  • Describe a fundraising campaign you led.
  • How did you communicate fundraising goals internally and externally?
  • How do you ensure campaigns are successful?
  • How do you maintain relationships with past donors?

Sponsorship

  • Have you secured new sponsors? Walk me through your process.
  • What type of ROI reports have you provided to sponsors?
  • What industries would you target for sponsorship and why?

Financial Management

  • Do you have experience with fundraising budgets, reporting, and financial record keeping?
  • What was your role in tracking expenditures and revenue from campaigns?

Events & Grants

  • What is your experience with fundraising events (in-person, virtual, hybrid)?
  • Describe a time you didn’t meet a fundraising goal. Why?
  • Have you applied for grants? What was your role?
  • What grants were awarded to your organization?

Community & Database Development

  • Do you have experience improving fundraising databases (donor segmentation, targeted communication)?
  • How would you strengthen community, business, and industry relationships?
  • How would you increase our community presence?
Government Relations / Public Affairs

Policy & Advocacy

  • What level of involvement have you had in policy and advocacy?
  • Have you developed advocacy positions for members?
  • How do you build relationships with elected officials?
  • What policy proposals or recommendations have you advanced?

Representation & Media

  • How have you represented organizational issues in the past?
  • Do you have industry/government contacts that could support our position?
  • What strategies would you use to advance our advocacy?
  • What is your experience with media relations in public affairs?
Human Resources Roles

Recruitment & Retention

  • What has been your involvement with the recruitment and hiring of new staff?
  • Was retention a challenge? What steps did you take to improve it?

Training & Development

  • What role have you played in training new hires?
  • What strategies did you use to mentor/coach staff?

Workplace Practices

  • How do you view work-life balance?
  • Do you encourage remote or hybrid work? How did you manage off-site teams?
  • What was your performance review process?
  • How do you handle employees not meeting expectations?

Terminations & Legal Issues

  • Have you terminated employees? What steps did you take to prepare?
  • Have you faced wrongful dismissal, human rights, accommodation, or Employment Standards claims? How did you resolve them?
Marketing / Communications / Event Planning

Marketing & Outreach

  • Tell me about your nonprofit marketing experience.
  • How would you communicate our mission across platforms?
  • What marketing strategies have you used to grow donor bases?
  • What public speaking have you done?
  • Have you represented an organization publicly?

Content & Media

  • How do you communicate mission through written material?
  • Tell me about a media kit you produced.
  • Have you used social media (paid/organic) to promote causes?
  • How do you track campaign results?
  • Do you have SEO, content marketing, or paid ads experience?
  • Have you written media releases or grant proposals?

Event Planning

  • What event planning experience do you have (community, fundraising, hybrid)?
  • Describe events you’ve planned (size, scope, outcomes).
  • What was your most successful event? Least successful?
  • How did you promote and budget events?
  • Are you familiar with licensing/legal guidelines for events?
Non-Profit Professionals Initial Questions

Career Path & Motivation

  • Tell me how your professional history has brought you here.
  • What do you know about our organization? Why are you interested in our organization in particular?
  • What interests you about this position?

Experience in the Sector

  • Have you worked for a charity or non-profit organization before?

If no:

  • What drew you to apply to the non-profit sector?
  • How do you see non-profit as different from the sector you came from?
  • What unique challenges do you expect to face in this sector?

If yes:

  • In what capacity (full-time employee, volunteer, etc.)?
  • In your opinion, what are the most important skills and competencies candidates should have to successfully work in this sector?
  • What was the key mission of the non-profit you worked with? What was the organizational structure from the Board to Committees, and key programs?
  • Why do you believe the charitable and non-profit sector has grown so much in the last 20 years?

Knowledge of the Organization

  • What do you know about our membership or donor base and the challenges and opportunities we are facing?
  • What is most compelling to you about our cause or our mission?
  • How do you think you can assist our organization in achieving our goals?
Program Development
  • Tell me about your experience developing non-profit programs.
  • Did you work with the Board/ED to identify needs?
  • How did you engage with communities served to identify program needs?
  • How have you contributed to marketing or initiatives to support programs?
  • What do you know about our programs? What developments would you recommend?
  • How have you collaborated with departments to communicate programs publicly (website, media, internal docs)?
  • What strategies have you used to attract members/donors/clients?
  • What is your experience with program budgeting?
  • Describe a program you developed including budgeting and forecasting.
Soft Skills for Non-Profit Professionals (2025)
  • What motivates you to work in the non-profit sector?
  • How do you balance passion for mission with accountability for results?
  • How do you build trust across diverse stakeholders (Board, donors, staff, volunteers)?
  • Tell me about a conflict you resolved within a non-profit setting.
  • How do you adapt when funding is uncertain or resources are limited?
  • Share a time you had to show resilience under pressure.
  • How do you inspire staff or volunteers when budgets are tight?
  • How do you ensure transparency in communication?
  • How do you embed equity, diversity, and inclusion in your daily work?
  • How do you ensure diverse voices are represented in decision-making?
Technology & AI in Non-Profits (2025)

Fundraising & Donor Engagement

  • Have you used CRM/AMS platforms (Salesforce NPSP, Raiser’s Edge, Neon One)?
  • Have you worked with AI donor segmentation or predictive giving models?
  • How do you track donor engagement through digital channels?

Marketing & Communications

  • Have you used AI tools for copywriting, campaign testing, or social content?
  • What analytics platforms do you rely on to measure campaign performance?

Program & Operations

  • Have you used dashboards to measure program impact?
  • Have you explored AI for grant writing, needs assessments, or outcome reporting?
  • How do you manage hybrid/virtual events with technology?

Finance & Compliance

  • Have you used AI for fraud detection, compliance, or expense reporting?
  • Which accounting/ERP systems for non-profits have you used?

Future of Non-Profits & AI

  • Where do you see AI having the biggest impact on non-profits in the next 5 years?
  • How do you balance AI efficiency with authentic, human-centered relationships?
Volunteer Recruitment

Experience & Roles

  • Have you volunteered before? What role?
  • Have you managed volunteers?
  • Were you responsible for scheduling?

Recruitment & Screening

  • What was your recruitment process? (Team/solo, # of volunteers, channels, screening).
  • What demographics did you recruit for?
  • How did you write position descriptions?

Training & Retention

  • What training did you provide? Who delivered it?
  • How did you track volunteers and projects?
  • What turnover did you experience and why?

Conflict & Communication

  • How did you manage conflict among volunteers or with staff?
  • Provide an example of a communications issue you solved.

Hypotheticals

  • Staff resistance to volunteer programs — how would you address it?
  • Dependable volunteer becomes unreliable — how do you handle it?

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