Senior Director West Coast, 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 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 deepening and expanding 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 grow existing partnerships and support the development of new partnerships by collaborating with our new business team and working with our existing partners to drive growth within a region. You will lead and execute this work end-to-end: from developing strategic plans for each of your accounts, establishing meaningful relationships with senior leaders of our foundation partners, creating sophisticated and effective proposals, managing a robust portfolio, cultivating relationships with decision makers at various levels within the organization to build demand for Catchafire, 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 Partnerships team is a company priority and we are looking for individuals who have proven experience coaching,developing and managing diverse talent.
Attributes
- Rainmaker and expert partnerships builder: You have demonstrated the ability to create demand and sustain relationships for a transformative product or service and are often regarded as a thought leader. You are able to drive nuanced client discussions and co-create a compelling, long-term partnership vision that clients champion. 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 are highly skilled at ensuring that the proper balance of relationship and revenue is created and maintained as you advance strategic initiatives such evolving pricing and partnership structures or exploring new services. The relationships you build are long lasting and deep, enabling innovative solutions and long-term value creation.
- 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. You have honed your ability to work across functions and create an inclusive process that drives towards outcomes.
- Compelling communicator: You are an expert listener that knows that excellent communications start with first understanding your audience. You are skilled at composing content at each stage of a partnership building process and can do so expediently. Whether it be writing a 5 page grant proposal or collaborating with a Design team to build a new 2 page summary of an offering, you create clear, concise materials that make your audience feel heard while presenting a persuasive path forward.
- 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.
Responsibilities of the Senior Director, Partnerships
- Lead our most innovative enterprise deals with high-profile clients from start to finish in our West Coast region:
- Understand the landscape for the regions you are assigned and efficiently and effectively create and cultivate senior relationships in order to expand and deepen our partnerships
- Set a transformative, regional vision in collaboration with existing partners and the new business seller in regions where we already have a presence in order to grow the number of organizations we serve
- Support the development and execution of the regional strategy owned by the new business partnerships lead for your assigned regions
- Shepherd the evolution of a partnership 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, supporting marketing collateral and presentations to drive forward the sale
- Negotiate terms and close
- 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 Partnerships team
- Strategically cultivate relationships within the foundation sector so that they serve as champions and reference clients for us
- 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
- 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 nonprofit effectiveness
Experience / Background
In order to be successful in this role you must meet most, of if not all, of the following needs:
- Extensive relevant enterprise sales and sales mentorship experience with progressive responsibility (perhaps 10+ years)
- Strong track record in building partnerships from prospecting to close 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
- Experience that provides an intuitive understanding of how large organizations work and an ability to quickly speak the language of different organizations in different sectors
- Track record of strategic and operational excellence when managing a portfolio of high growth clients, including driving work streams that require a high degree of cross functional collaboration
- Experience training, coaching and developing developing individuals with diverse identities and backgrounds
- 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
- 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.
- This experience might include:
- Understanding of DEI issues within the Philanthropy and Nonprofit sectors
- Experience in partnering or working with underrepresented or marginalized groups and/or the organizations that support them
- This experience might include:
- 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 West Coast, 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.
We have a preference for candidates who are located in California 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’s headquarters office is based in New York City, though we are working remotely due to COVID-19.
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