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Founder vs executive director

The differences between founders and executive directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an executive director has an average salary of $127,956, which is higher than the $91,296 average annual salary of a founder.

The top three skills for a founder include web design, business strategy and non-profit organization. The most important skills for an executive director are oversight, patients, and customer service.

Founder vs executive director overview

FounderExecutive Director
Yearly salary$91,296$127,956
Hourly rate$43.89$61.52
Growth rate-5%-8%
Number of jobs5997,471
Job satisfaction-4.5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Average age4449
Years of experience-4

What does a founder do?

A Founder is responsible for building his/her business from the ground up through various strategies and extensive planning. A Founder is also responsible for the workforce's funding and recruitment that would be vital for a company to succeed and create a vision and mission that the business would uphold. Furthermore, a Founder must take the lead in the business planning and operations, develop and maintain goals, coordinate with the board, and maintain a healthy relationship with employees.

What does an executive director do?

Executive directors are top management employees who usually function as a chief executive officer. This role is usually seen in non-profit organizations. Executive directors provide strategic direction to the organization, and they ensure that the organization's goals are actualized. They provide guidance to the employees and ensure that the employees have the organization's advocacies at the center of every project or program. They oversee the policies of the organization and create strategies that will bring the organization's programs forward. Executive directors are also responsible for making crucial decisions for the betterment of the organization.

Founder vs executive director salary

Founders and executive directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

FounderExecutive Director
Average salary$91,296$127,956
Salary rangeBetween $47,000 And $176,000Between $76,000 And $213,000
Highest paying City-New York, NY
Highest paying state-New York
Best paying company-Genentech
Best paying industry-Finance

Differences between founder and executive director education

There are a few differences between a founder and an executive director in terms of educational background:

FounderExecutive Director
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 71%Bachelor's Degree, 63%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common college-University of Pennsylvania

Founder vs executive director demographics

Here are the differences between founders' and executive directors' demographics:

FounderExecutive Director
Average age4449
Gender ratioMale, 64.3% Female, 35.7%Male, 47.0% Female, 53.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 10.8% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 3.7% White, 62.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 5.0% White, 71.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage7%10%

Differences between founder and executive director duties and responsibilities

Founder example responsibilities.

  • Manage revenue, expense transactions, complete customer invoices, purchase orders (QuickBooks).
  • Lead team of software developers (JavaScript) and sound engineers that launch interactive sound solutions for the web.
  • Manage paid AdWords and Facebook marketing campaigns for consumer-persona research, brand awareness and customer acquisition.
  • Manage company expense and payroll accounts, purchase and deliver materials to job-sites, and business administrative services simultaneously.
  • Design, develop and maintain websites using cross-browser compliant XHTML, CSS & JavaScript.
  • Launch the site to fill a gap in educating beginner web programmers to use HTML to PHP to MySQL.
  • Show more

Executive director example responsibilities.

  • Manage 10 department heads who supervise a staff of 350 FTE's.
  • Develop and manage sales teams to assure the highest ROI on the client's investment.
  • Create and manage a call center for lead programs to support the prospecting activity needs of the FSR.
  • Freelance blogging to increase website views and ultimately to turn organic content into leads and ROI for small businesses.
  • Market and manage group and individual insurance programs including health, life, disability, long term care and annuities.
  • Major accomplishment are to achieve initial NAEYC accreditation.
  • Show more

Founder vs executive director skills

Common founder skills
  • Web Design, 24%
  • Business Strategy, 5%
  • Non-Profit Organization, 5%
  • Facebook, 5%
  • R, 4%
  • Business Plan, 4%
Common executive director skills
  • Oversight, 10%
  • Patients, 9%
  • Customer Service, 5%
  • Financial Management, 5%
  • Business Development, 4%
  • Home Health, 4%

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