How To Become A Foundation Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a foundation director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A foundation director oversees the affairs, policymaking, objectives, and initiatives of a non-profit organization or foundation. Foundation directors develop policies that help maximize funding for the organization. They also develop strategies for fundraising campaigns and other activities of the organization.

Foundation Directors are also in charge of setting the key performance objectives for these activities. Your responsibility includes hiring employees or recruiting volunteers. You also need to connect with and communicate with stakeholders of the organization. You will prepare budgets, reports, and other documents for the approval of the trustees and directors of the foundation.

The minimum academic requirement for this role is a bachelor's degree in management, marketing, or communication field. Soft skills needed include Communication and organizational skills. A foundation director also leads and manages the organization; hence, excellent leadership skills will be needed for this role. Some years of experience in a management role will be valuable for this role. Averagely, foundation directors earn an annual salary of $68,584.

ScoreFoundation DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.5

Avg. Salary $97,206

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.7

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.42%

Asian 5.11%

Black or African American 5.95%

Hispanic or Latino 9.10%

Unknown 4.66%

White 74.76%

Gender

female 60.26%

male 39.74%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

8.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.4

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a foundation director

Explore foundation director education requirements

Most common foundation director degrees

Bachelor's

66.4 %

Master's

21.4 %

Doctorate

5.7 %

Start to develop specific foundation director skills

Skills	Percentages
Foundation Board	11.95%
Fund Development	8.17%
Donor Relations	7.25%
Alumni	7.01%
Government Agencies	5.39%

Complete relevant foundation director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New foundation directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a foundation director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real foundation director resumes.

Research foundation director duties and responsibilities

Manage organization s membership program by implementing annual membership drives and appeals.
Resolve financial issues relate to charitable contributions, provide program budgets, process payroll, and oversight management of operating accounts.
Work with administrative leadership with community relations, including promotional events and media communication.

Get foundation director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a foundation director. The most common roles before becoming a foundation director include executive director, development director team lead and director.

Prepare your foundation director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your foundation director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a foundation director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable foundation director resume templates

Build a professional foundation director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your foundation director resume.

Apply for foundation director jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a foundation director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do foundation directors rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Foundation director reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019

Cons

- The pressure of securing funds. - comparing the role with sales and/or fundraising - lack of response from donors you are reaching out to. It made me feel as if I wasn't doing my job of connecting with them.