Who's Really on the Hook? Mapping Organizational Accountability
You've done your hook audit in part one of this series. You've identified the list of things that would collapse if you disappeared tomorrow. You've had the uncomfortable realization that your indispensability is actually an organizational design flaw.
Now comes the harder question: Who else in your organization is on the hook for what? And do they actually know it?
Most nonprofit leaders can't answer this question clearly. Not because they're bad leaders, but because organizational accountability is rarely mapped explicitly. We operate on assumptions, inherited norms, and "that's how we've always done it" instead of clear, documented agreements about who holds which hooks.
This creates two catastrophic scenarios that play out constantly in nonprofit transitions:
The accountability vacuum: Everyone assumes someone else is handling it. Critical functions fall through cracks. Board members think staff is responsible. Staff thinks the board should be governing. Funders expect oversight that isn't happening. Nothing is anyone's fault because nothing was anyone's job.
The accountability pile-on: Everyone thinks they're responsible for the same things. Founder syndrome, board micromanagement, and staff paralysis all stem from this—too many people on hooks that should belong to one role or governance body.
Both scenarios are succession planning disasters. When leadership transitions happen, unclear accountability turns into organizational crisis. Let's map who's actually on the hook in your organization, where the gaps are, and how to fix them before someone leaves.
The Three Hook Categories You Need to Map
Every organization has hooks across three domains: Strategic Hooks, Operational Hooks, and Governance Hooks.
Most organizational dysfunction comes from putting the wrong people on the wrong domain's hooks—or not defining the domains clearly at all.
Strategic Hooks: Direction and Priority Setting
These are hooks about what the organization does and why. They include:
Mission definition and evolution
Strategic priorities and goals
Program design and theory of change
Resource allocation decisions (budgets, staffing priorities)
Organizational positioning and partnerships
Long-term sustainability planning
Who should be on these hooks: Executive leadership and board, collaboratively. The board sets direction, the ED/CEO leads execution, both are accountable for ensuring strategic coherence.
Where this breaks: EDs making strategic decisions without board input (common in founder-led orgs). Boards abdicating strategy entirely to staff (common in rubber-stamp governance).
Operational Hooks: Execution and Management
These are hooks about how the work gets done, day-to-day. They include:
Program delivery and quality
Staff management and development
Financial operations and compliance
Donor relationship management
Communications and marketing execution
Systems, technology, and infrastructure
Who should be on these hooks: Executive leadership and staff. The board's job is to ensure operational capacity exists, not to do operations.
Where this breaks: Board members inserting themselves into staff decisions. EDs making operational decisions they should delegate. Staff unclear about their authority to act.
Governance Hooks: Oversight and Accountability
These are hooks about ensuring the organization functions with integrity and effectiveness. They include:
Fiduciary oversight (financial health, legal compliance, risk management)
Executive performance evaluation
Board recruitment, development, and succession
Policy setting and enforcement
Ethical oversight and values alignment
Emergency preparedness and succession planning
Who should be on these hooks: The board, exclusively. Staff supports board governance, but the board cannot delegate these hooks.
Where this breaks: Boards asking staff to evaluate the ED. Boards delegating fiduciary oversight to finance committees without full board engagement. Board chairs acting as operational managers. EDs governing themselves.
Practical Exercise: Your Organizational Hook Map
Get your full leadership team (ED, senior staff, board chair, key board members) in a room—virtual or physical. You're going to map every major organizational function and who's actually responsible.
Step 1: List Everything
On a large whiteboard or shared document, list every significant organizational function across the three domains. Don't filter yet—just get it all visible.
Strategic domain examples:
Annual goal setting
Budget approval
Program launch decisions
Partnership agreements
Funding strategy
Operational domain examples:
Staff hiring and firing
Donor communications
Grant reporting
Event planning
Database management
Day-to-day financial management
Governance domain examples:
Board meeting agendas and facilitation
ED performance review
Financial audit oversight
Policy review and approval
Board member recruitment
Emergency succession planning
Step 2: Assign Current Reality
For each function, write who currently handles it. Not who should—who actually does. Use names or roles: ED, Board Chair, Finance Committee, Development Director, "No one," "Everyone."
This is where things get uncomfortable. You'll discover:
Functions where multiple people think they're responsible
Functions no one is actually handling
Functions being handled by the wrong domain (boards doing operations, EDs doing governance)
Functions that exist only in one person's head
Don't fix anything yet. Just see reality clearly.
Step 3: Identify the Gaps and Overlaps
Mark everything that falls into these categories:
Single-person dependencies (marked in red): Any function that only one person can do, with no backup or documentation. These are your highest succession risks.
No clear owner (marked in yellow): Functions that multiple people are partially handling, or that everyone assumes someone else is doing. These become crises during transitions.
Wrong domain ownership (marked in orange): Board members on operational hooks. Staff on governance hooks. Strategic decisions being made tactically. These create ongoing dysfunction.
Founder/ED overreach (marked in blue): Functions the founder or long-tenure ED is handling that should have been delegated years ago. Classic founder syndrome markers.
Board underperformance (marked in purple): Governance functions the board isn't doing, especially fiduciary oversight and succession planning. The places where the board is off hooks it should be on.
Step 4: Redesign Who Should Be on What Hooks
Now redesign. For each function, answer:
Which domain does this belong in? (Strategic, Operational, or Governance)
Who should be on this hook? (Be specific: role or governance body)
What authority do they have? (Decide alone? Consult others? Need approval?)
Who needs to be informed? (Not responsible, but needs to know)
What documentation/training would make this transferable?
Create a simple authority matrix. It might look like this:
Function: Annual Budget Development
Domain: Strategic (what resources for what priorities)
Primary hook: ED proposes, Board Finance Committee reviews, Full Board approves
Authority: Board has final approval, ED has development authority
Informed: Full staff after board approval
Transferability needs: Budget development process documentation, historical context, strategic priorities alignment guide
Function: Staff Hiring
Domain: Operational
Primary hook: Hiring manager recommends, ED approves
Authority: ED has final authority for all hires
Informed: Board chair for senior positions
Transferability needs: Hiring criteria, salary bands, onboarding protocols
Function: ED Performance Evaluation
Domain: Governance
Primary hook: Board Personnel Committee leads, Full Board approves
Authority: Board only—this cannot be delegated to staff
Informed: ED receives feedback directly from board
Transferability needs: Evaluation criteria, process timeline, historical reviews
The Founder Syndrome Audit
If your organization was founded by someone still in leadership (ED, board chair, or major donor), add this layer to your mapping:
List every function the founder currently handles.
For each one, ask:
Is this function being held because of organizational need, or because of founder attachment?
Could this function be transferred to another person or role?
What's the risk if this function remains founder-dependent?
What would be required to transfer this function?
What's preventing that transfer from happening right now?
Founder syndrome isn't about founders being controlling or egotistical. It's about organizations failing to transition hooks from founding leadership to sustainable institutional structures. The founder is often holding hooks the organization has never built capacity to take on.
This becomes catastrophic during succession. The founder leaves, and suddenly twenty critical functions have no owner because they were never formally part of anyone's role.
Accountability checkpoint for founders: If you're the founder, you should not be the only person who can do anything. If you are, you haven't built an organization—you've built a dependency structure with a nonprofit tax status.
The Board Member Hook Crisis
Now let's address the board side of this equation, because board accountability confusion causes just as many transition disasters as ED overreach.
Most board members have no idea what hooks they're actually on. They show up to meetings, vote on things, maybe serve on a committee. They think "governance" is something that happens in board meetings, not a set of explicit responsibilities they're personally accountable for.
The Three Hooks Every Board Member Is On (Whether They Know It or Not)
Hook 1: Fiduciary Duty You are legally and ethically responsible for the organization's financial health, legal compliance, and mission integrity. This isn't optional. This isn't "that's what the treasurer does." Every board member is on this hook.
What this means practically:
You read financial statements before board meetings and ask questions if something seems wrong
You understand the organization's major revenue sources and expense drivers
You know what the reserves are and whether they're adequate
You review the annual audit and understand any findings
You ensure the organization is legally compliant (payroll taxes, required filings, insurance)
Hook 2: Organizational Strategy and Direction You are responsible for ensuring the organization has clear strategic direction and stays aligned with mission. The board doesn't do the work, but you're accountable for ensuring the work is the right work.
What this means practically:
You engage meaningfully in strategic planning, not just show up and nod
You ask hard questions about program effectiveness and impact
You ensure resources align with priorities
You make decisions about major strategic shifts or new initiatives
You understand the competitive landscape and sustainability threats
Hook 3: Executive Leadership and Succession You are responsible for hiring, supporting, evaluating, and if necessary, transitioning the ED/CEO. This is often the most neglected board hook—until there's a crisis.
What this means practically:
You conduct regular, meaningful ED performance evaluations
You ensure the ED has the support and resources needed to succeed
You have an emergency succession plan in case the ED leaves suddenly
You develop a leadership pipeline strategy for long-term succession
You know when it's time for leadership transition (and act on it)
Where Board Members Get Off Hooks They Should Be On
Common board accountability failures I see constantly:
The Disengaged Board Member: Shows up to meetings, doesn't read materials beforehand, votes however the board chair suggests. Thinks fiduciary duty means not being sued. Has no idea what the organization's budget is or whether it's in financial trouble.
The Rubber Stamp Board: Approves whatever staff recommends without meaningful oversight. Thinks being supportive means never questioning anything. Abdicates governance entirely to the ED.
The Volunteer Board Member: Treats board service like volunteering for staff work—runs events, stuffs envelopes, serves on program committees. Feels productive because they're "doing" something, but isn't doing governance at all.
The Board That Won't Deal With ED Performance: Avoids the hard conversation. Lets mediocre or failing performance continue because transition seems too difficult. Enables organizational decline through governance avoidance.
Accountability checkpoint for board members: If you can't clearly articulate what you're accountable for beyond showing up to meetings, you're not governing—you're attending. That's not the same thing.
The Dangerous Space: When Everyone Is On the Hook (or No One Is)
The worst organizational accountability scenario isn't too few people on hooks. It's diffused responsibility where everyone feels vaguely accountable, so no one is specifically accountable.
This shows up as:
"We're all responsible for fundraising" (so no one has fundraising goals)
"The board and staff collaborate on strategy" (so strategic decisions never get made)
"Everyone owns our culture" (so toxic behavior isn't addressed)
"We operate by consensus" (so nothing happens without unanimous agreement)
Diffused accountability is no accountability. Someone must be on the hook for every critical organizational function. That person may consult widely, collaborate meaningfully, and build consensus—but at the end of the day, one person or governance body must own the outcome.
When you can't answer "who's responsible for this?" with a specific name or role, you've found an organizational liability.
Practical Exercise: The Hook Transfer Plan
You've now mapped who's currently on what hooks, and who should be. The gap between current and should is your work.
For every function that needs to move from one person/role to another, create a hook transfer plan:
Function being transferred: [Specific responsibility]
Current hook holder: [Name/role]
Future hook holder: [Name/role]
Transfer timeline: [Start date → Full transfer date]
What needs to happen:
Documentation required
Training or shadow period
Authority formally delegated
Stakeholders informed
Success metrics for transfer
Transfer blockers: [What's preventing this from happening?]
Accountability: [Who ensures this transfer actually happens?]
This isn't busy work. This is succession planning in its most practical form—systematically transferring hooks before crisis forces emergency transfers.
Your Accountability Assignment
Before moving to the next article, complete this diagnostic:
Pick one critical organizational function that currently has unclear accountability (either no clear owner, or multiple people think they're responsible).
By the end of this month:
Name the specific person or governance body that will be on this hook
Document what being on this hook means (authority, decisions, responsibilities)
Communicate this clearly to everyone who needs to know
Remove this function from anyone who shouldn't be on this hook
Set a check-in date to ensure the transfer worked
One function. One month. Clear accountability where there was confusion.
Then move to the next one.
Because succession planning isn't just about what happens when someone leaves. It's about building organizational clarity about who's responsible for what while everyone is still here.
What's Next: Getting Off the Hook Without Abandoning Ship
You've identified who should be on which hooks. Now comes the emotional and practical challenge: actually getting yourself off the hooks you've held too long. In the next article, we'll address the guilt, shame, and fear that keeps leaders holding onto hooks they should release. We'll distinguish between healthy disengagement and abandonment, and explore what you actually owe your organization when you step back from responsibilities you've carried for years.
Because knowing intellectually that you should delegate is different from actually doing it. And the internal barriers—your identity wrapped up in being needed, your fear that standards will slip, your belief that you're the only one who really cares—those barriers are often stronger than any structural challenge.
We'll also tackle the hard question: what do you owe your organization when you actually leave? Not what your anxiety tells you that you owe, but what organizational health and professional transitions actually require. If you've been holding hooks so long you can't imagine not holding them, that's where we're going next.