Nonprofit Org Chart Templates, Sized to Your Organization

A nonprofit organizational chart shows who governs the organization, who runs it and who reports to whom. The four templates below are sized to how nonprofits actually look, from a volunteer-run group to a large organization with departments, because the most common mistake is drawing a chart for an organization you are not. All four are in the free Word download.

What every nonprofit org chart has to show

• The board at the top. The board of directors governs. In a membership organization, the members elect it and sit above it; otherwise the board elects its own successors. See nonprofit board of directors.
• One line from the board to the executive director. The board hires, supervises and evaluates the chief executive, and no one else on the staff. See executive director vs CEO.
• Committees beside the staff line, not on it. Board committees advise the board. Staff work with them but do not report to them.
• Officers as board roles. The chair, secretary and treasurer are positions on the board. A treasurer reviews the finances; the bookkeeper or finance director reports to the executive director.
• Everyone else reporting through the executive director, directly or through managers.
• Volunteers. Many charities rely on them more than on staff, and a chart without them hides who does the work.

How big your chart should be

Most templates online show five departments and a dozen managers. Few nonprofits look like that. We analysed Form 990 Part V line 2a, the number of people a charity issued a W-2 to during the year, and Part VII line 2, the number paid more than $100,000, for every 501(c)(3) that files the full return.

Below $1 million in revenue, the typical charity has between none and two paid staff, and almost none pays anyone more than $100,000. That is a chart of a board, an executive director and volunteers, not a management structure. The layer of senior managers that most template galleries show appears only above about $5 million, where the median charity has 85 staff and two people paid over $100,000. The W-2 count includes part-time and seasonal staff and anyone who left during the year, so it is larger than headcount on any one day. The full employment analysis is in nonprofit jobs.

Four nonprofit org chart templates

Each template lists the boxes and the reporting lines. Draw them top to bottom in the order shown, or use the Word download, which has them laid out as charts you can edit.

1. Volunteer-run (no paid staff)

2. Small (1 to 8 staff)

3. Mid-sized (15 to 40 staff)

4. Large (85 or more staff)

Which template fits

• No paid staff: template 1. Show who coordinates each programme, so volunteers know who to ask.
• One to eight staff: template 2. With one staff member, the chart is the board, the committees, the executive director and the volunteers.
• Fifteen to forty staff: template 3, with three or four directors reporting to the executive director.
• Eighty-five or more: template 4, with a senior team and divisions.

If you are between sizes, draw the chart you have, not the one you plan to have. Planned posts belong in a separate version marked as such, which is useful in a strategic plan or a capital campaign.

What Form 990 asks that your chart should match

The IRS does not ask for an org chart, but Form 990 asks several questions that the chart should agree with. From the Form 990 instructions:

• Part VI line 1a asks how many voting members the governing body has, and line 1b how many of them are independent, which among other tests means not paid as an officer or employee. Your chart’s board box should give the same number.
• If the board has delegated broad authority to an executive committee, the instructions ask for it to be described on Schedule O, and it belongs on the chart.
• Part VI line 2 asks whether any officer, director or key employee has a family or business relationship with another. If the executive director’s spouse runs the finance team, the chart shows a relationship the return must disclose; see conflict of interest policy.
• Part VI line 3 asks whether the organization delegated management duties to a management company or other person.
• Part VII lists officers, directors, trustees and key employees, and the highest-paid staff. The instructions treat as officers the people elected or appointed to manage daily operations, including the top management official, such as the executive director, and the top financial official. A key employee is someone paid more than $150,000 in reportable compensation who has authority over the whole organization, or over at least 10% of its activities, assets, income or budget, and is among its 20 highest-paid employees. Up to five other employees paid more than $100,000 are listed as highest compensated.

A chart that shows twelve directors when the return says nine, or a “chief operating officer” who does not appear in Part VII, invites questions from funders who read both. See Form 990.

Common situations and how to draw them

• Dotted lines. Use a dotted line for a secondary relationship, such as a finance director’s access to the audit committee, or a programme lead who also supports fundraising. Keep them few.
• Founder who is also the executive director and a board member. Show the person twice: as a director on the board and as the executive director reporting to it. It makes the dual role visible, which is the point. A common arrangement is for the executive director to sit on the board without a vote.
• Contractors. Show contracted bookkeepers, grant writers and consultants in a different style, reporting to whoever manages the contract. See can a nonprofit hire independent contractors.
• Fiscally sponsored projects. The sponsor’s board has legal responsibility, so the project sits under the sponsor, usually with its own advisory committee. See fiscal sponsorship.
• Subsidiaries and affiliated foundations. A separate legal entity has its own board. Draw it as a separate chart connected by a dotted line, not as a department. See can a nonprofit own an LLC.
• Advisory boards. Advisory boards have no legal authority. Place them beside the board or the executive director, clearly labelled advisory.
• Shared roles. At small organizations one person often holds two jobs. Put both titles in one box rather than inventing a second person.

How to make the chart

1. List every role, including vacancies, contractors and volunteer coordinators.
2. Write down who each person actually reports to, not who they ought to, and resolve the disagreements before drawing anything.
3. Draw it in whatever tool you already have. Word and PowerPoint have built-in hierarchy graphics, Google Slides and Drawings work, and design tools such as Canva and dedicated diagram tools have org chart templates. Names change more often than structure, so consider a version with titles only.
4. Check it against your bylaws, especially the officers and committees, and against your latest Form 990. See nonprofit bylaws.
5. Have the board approve it if it changes reporting lines, and record that in the board minutes.
6. Date it and review it once a year, or whenever a senior role changes.

Where the chart gets used

• Grant applications. Many funders ask for one, especially for larger grants; see grant proposal template.
• The board handbook and new board member orientation. See nonprofit board templates.
• Staff and volunteer onboarding.
• The annual report, usually as a simplified version; see annual report template.
• Succession planning. The chart shows who covers each senior role in an emergency; see emergency succession plan.

Mistakes to avoid

• Staff reporting to individual board members, or to the board chair rather than to the board.
• Committees drawn in the staff line, as if staff report to them.
• A chart for a 40-person organization when you have four people, which misleads funders and confuses staff.
• Leaving out volunteers, contractors or the fiscal sponsor.
• No date, so nobody knows whether it is current.

Where the figures come from

The staff figures are our analysis of the IRS Statistics of Income extract of Form 990 returns, Part V line 2a and Part VII line 2, for 269,686 501(c)(3) organizations that file the full Form 990. Script: bin/analyse_soi_orgchart.py. Governance questions are from the Form 990 instructions, read on 16 October 2026. The templates are illustrations, not legal advice; your bylaws and state law decide who your officers are and who has authority.

This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.