Founder and executive director resume examples from 2026
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How to write a founder and executive director resume
Craft a resume summary statement
Your resume summary sums up your experience and skills, making it easy for hiring managers to understand your qualifications at a glance. Here are some tips to writing the most important 2-4 sentences of your resume:
Step 1: Mention your current job title or the role you're pursuing.
Step 2: Include your years of experience in founder and executive director-related roles. Consider adding relevant company and industry experience as relevant to the job listing.
Step 3: Highlight your greatest accomplishments. Here is your chance to make sure your biggest wins aren't buried in your resume.
Step 4: Again, keep it short. Your goal is to summarize your experience and highlight your accomplishments, not write a paragraph.
These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some founder and executive director interviews.Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.
List the right project manager skills
Your Skills section is an easy way to let recruiters know you have the skills to do the job. Just as importantly, it can help your resume not get filtered out by hiring software. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:
- Look to the job listing. You often need to include the exact keywords from the job description. Take note of the skills listed for the job.
- Put all relevant hard and soft skills in your skills section.
- Be specific. If you are too broad, you may not be giving the best picture of your skills and leave the hiring manager uncertain of your abilities.
- Be up to date. Software names change and companies merge. Don't look out of touch by being careless.
- Be accurate. Spelling and even upper or lowercase can dramatically change meanings. Make sure you are correctly listing your skills.
Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a founder and executive director resume:
- Non-Profit Organization
- Financial Management
- Community Outreach
- Business Plan
- Website Development
- Oversight
- Human Resources
- Mental Health
- Program Development
- Strategic Plan
- Event Planning
- Substance Abuse
- Community Services
- Fund Raising
- Strategic Partnerships
- Press Releases
- Business Development
- Public Speaking
- Professional Development
- Community Organizations
- at-Risk Youth
- Educational Programs
- NYC
- Government Agencies
- Community Resources
- Ministry
- Support Services
- Board Development
Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.
How to structure your work experience
A work experience section is a vital part of your resume because it shows you have the experience to succeed in your next job.
- Put your most recent experience first. Prospective employers care about your most recent accomplishments the most.
- Put the job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.
- Include only recent, relevant jobs. This means if you're a fairly experienced worker, you might need to leave off that first internship or other positions in favor of highlighting more pertinent positions.
How to write founder and executive director experience bullet points
Remember, your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. This is your chance to show why you're good at your job and what you accomplished.
Use the XYZ formula for your work experience bullet points. Here's how it works:
- Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
- Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
- Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.
This creates bullet points that read Achieved X, measured by Y, by doing Z.
Here are great bullet points from founder and executive director resumes:
Work history example #1
Project Manager
Exxon Mobil
- Achieved excellent industry and corporate results through influence with industry and Government on new GST policy and regulations.
- Worked in planning and project development including development of business case, economic evaluation and design of refinery initiatives located worldwide.
- Ensured all OSHA regulations were met which resulted in being awarded STAR status.
- Coordinated hardware design planning, delivery, and implementation.
- Managed company-wide Intranet providing access to five global regions.
Work history example #2
General Manager
CVS Health
- Executed payroll reduction strategies in a fluid business environment.
- Collaborated with staff and developed a communication channel with customers to fulfill their needs and specifications.
- Completed weekly payroll and uploading by utilizing internal system.
- Handled all customer relationship issues in accordance with company policy and promoted a positive shopping experience.
- Maintained paperwork for payroll, inventory and executed profit and loss reports.
Work history example #3
Administrative Manager (Part-Time)
Citi
- Provided administrative support as needed including preparing reports, excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.
- Implemented daily checklists to identify control deficiencies and improve oversight of business critical tasks.
- Sorted and distributed incoming faxes, letters and emails.
- Increased the effectiveness and level of professionalism in each position held
- Managed technological issues and requests, suggestions for systems and process improvements, and communications to corporate headquarters.
Work history example #4
Consultant
Sprint
- Communicated positive and negative variables that affected daily commerce with an action plan to the Regional Manager.
- Opened and closed the store, audited inventory, and made the nightly deposit.
- Managed entire Sprint infrastructure and supported teams designated to deliver software to 85K+ remote systems within organization.
- Analyzed customer telecommunication needs and presented attractive service options, persuading many customers to convert to Sprint PCS.
- Executed seminars, workshops, training and site acceptance to customer prior to handover of the infrastructure.
Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.
Add an education section to your resume
Here is the best way to format your education section:
- Display your highest degree first.
- If you graduated over 5 years ago, put this section at the bottom of your resume. If you lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.
- If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education.
- If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.
Here are some examples of good education entries from founder and executive director resumes:
Master's Degree in business
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA
1998 - 1999
Master's Degree in management
Strayer University, Washington, DC
2005 - 2006
Highlight your founder and executive director certifications on your resume
If you have any additional certifications, add them to the certification section.
Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.
If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your founder and executive director resume:
- Certified Manager Certification (CM)
- Certified Professional - Human Resource (IPMA-CP)
- Certified Professional Counselor
- Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
- Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF)
- Certified Planning Engineer (CPE)