Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships
About Catchafire
Catchafire is a full service, on-demand solution designed to address the wide-ranging and complex needs of nonprofits by connecting them with talented pro bono professionals. We partner with major funders (read more here) to provide unlimited access to Catchafire to tens of thousands of nonprofits ready to invest in the growth of their organizations and the impact of their service.
Our mission is simple: catalyze positive social change by building a stronger nonprofit sector fueled by talent abundance. Here are some ways to get to know us better:
About Role and the Department
Catchafire’s Strategic Partnerships team is a key revenue driver of the company and supports Catchafire’s mission by expanding and accelerating the adoption of Catchafire, primarily through partnerships with grantmaking foundations and philanthropic institutions.
We generate partnership opportunities via thought leadership and key relationships. The essence of your role will be to forge new and grow existing business partnerships, by setting our expansion strategies to break into new regions as well as deepen our presence in existing regions. You will lead and execute this work end-to-end: from prospecting through shepherding partnership opportunities all the way through to close and beyond. This includes a mix of cold and warm outreach to new potential foundation partners, establishing meaningful relationships with senior leaders of existing foundation partners, developing sophisticated and effective proposals, managing a robust pipeline, cultivating relationships with decision makers at various levels within the organization, and effectively communicating the value of Catchafire.
Your success in this role will require you to operate effectively not only as a stellar enterprise sales person and relationship builder, but as someone who can set and sell a complex and forward-thinking vision to individuals at the top of their field in philanthropy. You’ll also be expected to contribute to Catchafire’s sales strategy and vision, the evolution of our offering, and to collaborate excellently with other senior sellers as well as cross-functionally within Catchafire. While starting as an individual contributor, supporting the learning and development of the Strategic Partnerships team is a company priority and we are looking for individuals who have proven experience coaching and developing diverse talent.
Attributes
- Set and execute a vision: You can see the long-term vision for the program and account based on where Catchafire is headed, and you are able to identify the steps and plan the path to get there. You are often the person that sees opportunities before anyone else, and you bring your team and client along with you because you can visualize the way forward.
- Expert partnerships builder: You understand what it takes to get things done in a complex organization with many decision makers, and you are able to motivate different individuals up and down an organization to take action. You have a strong track record of navigating complex organizations to build nuanced partnerships, and can easily build relationships at any level within an organization. You see opportunities via relationships; you create a sense of mutual accountability, inspire action, and follow up effectively to ensure momentum.
- Keep many balls in the air: You are efficient and organized. You can take in a range of events at different levels of urgency and importance, formulate responses, and keep progress going on many fronts at once.
- Intentional leader: Over the years you have developed an effective and intentional leadership style that is true to your own personality. You are a leader who believes that you are both a teacher and a student. Some may call you a “servant leader,” but you know there is much more to it than that. You manage to people’s strengths, and your goal is to help them become the best they can be. You are often regarded as a thought leader.
Responsibilities
- Lead our most innovative deals with high-profile prospects and clients from start to finish:
- Understand the landscape for the regions you are assigned and efficiently and effectively create and cultivate leads that translate into qualified opportunities
- Set a transformative, regional vision in collaboration with existing partners in regions where we already have a presence in order to grow the number of organizations we serve
- For new regions, forge strong relationships with influential leaders and decision makers in order to bring Catchafire to the community
- Shepherd qualified leads to close by selling strategically through a complex organization
- Develop the arc of the sale and seamlessly lead client stakeholders along the way
- Develop pricing, deal structure, proposal, and presentations to drive forward the sale
- Negotiate terms and close
- Understand the landscape for the regions you are assigned and efficiently and effectively create and cultivate leads that translate into qualified opportunities
- Serve as an individual contributor to start, but as you progress in your understanding of and experience in our work, you will be a critical contributor to the coaching and development of members of the sales team
- Strategically cultivate relationships within the foundation sector so that they serve as advocates, ambassadors and connectors for us
- Conceive of and lead innovative and compelling convenings of foundation leaders (i.e. a Summit, monthly dinners, etc) where Catchafire is a thought leader on capacity building and civic engagement
- Translate industry knowledge and a keen understanding of sector challenges into opportunities and strategic new initiatives for Catchafire
- Be an active leader at the company-wide level, sharing insights and learnings and helping to shape our offering to meet the philanthropic and nonprofit sector’s needs
Experience / Background
In order to be successful in this role you must meet most, if not all, of the following needs:
- Extensive relevant experience with progressive responsibility (perhaps 10+ years)
- Specifically, we are looking for individuals who have a strong track record in building partnerships at an enterprise level that are in new or particularly challenging regions, are particularly innovative, transformative, visionary, or previously unproven, and highly strategic involving multiple stakeholders and levels of decision makers
- Demonstrated proficiency in independently developing and executing a prospecting and outreach strategy in new or challenging regions and for new or innovative partnerships
- Experience that establishes an intuitive understanding of how large organizations work and an ability to quickly speak the language of different companies and/or large foundations. Ideally, both
- High quality standard with the ability to manage multiple projects at a time while paying attention to details
- Exceptional presentation and verbal and written communications skills that enable you to both pitch Catchafire to leaders of their field and communicate your long term vision and strategic process to your internal stakeholders
- Experience training, coaching and developing diverse sales talent is a plus
- Commitment, experience OR interest in the social good sector
- Though prior experience in the social good sector is not required, we are seeking individuals looking to learn deeply about this space and quickly progress into thought leaders
- Familiarity with and a commitment to continued learning and development in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues and topics through professional and/or personal spaces.
- Understanding of DEI issues within the Philanthropy and Nonprofit sectors a plus
- Experience in partnering or working with underrepresented or marginalized groups — such as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; LGBTQ2IA+ communities; religious minorities; and people with disabilities -- or the individuals or organizations that directly support them
- Though travel is usually expected in this role for up to one third of your time, we are currently not expecting employees to travel due to COVID-19 through at least Spring 2021 (though maybe longer), and are happy to discuss any reasonable accommodations you would need to succeed in this role
How to Apply
If our values resonate with you, email your resume to [email protected]. Please specify "Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships"in the subject, and include short answers (150 words or less) to the following questions in lieu of a formal cover letter:
- Why do you want to work at Catchafire?
- Please describe a sale or partnership that you led from start to finish that you would describe as “transformative”, “radical”, or otherwise particularly challenging to communicate effectively. Please include an explanation of why you feel that your example fits this criteria.
Catchafire’s office is based in New York City, though we will be working remotely until at least April 2021 due to COVID-19. We will continue to assess our return date as the situation progresses, and consider our employees’ safety as a top priority.
We are open to candidates who are not located in New York City, but are located near a major airport and willing to travel regularly once it is safe to do so. We will continue to assess our return date and when we will resume work travel as the situation progresses, and consider our employees’ safety as a top priority.
Catchafire is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We are also welcoming to any reasonable accommodations that can be made for candidates in our hiring process.
Apply here