Director of Advisory Services

Director of Advisory Services

Position Type: Full-time, Salaried, Exempt

Location: Flexible (remote); Must be located and eligible to work in the U.S.

Salary Range: $108,000 – $135,000

Candidates will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The position will remain open until we have a sufficient pool of diverse candidates who meet the job requirements, at which point we may pause the review of new applications before the stated deadline. Please understand you may not be contacted for several weeks after you apply.

Closing Date: Feb. 28, 2025

Ideal Start Date: April 14, 2025

About the Center for Disaster Philanthropy

CDP began in 2010 with the goal of pioneering the practice of strategic disaster philanthropy. Since then, it has grown in its ambition, envisioning a world where the impact of disasters is minimized through thoughtful, equitable and responsible recovery for all. CDP has a $40 million budget and a team of more than 30 staff members working remotely across the U.S.

CDP is a trusted partner, expert and authoritative resource helping hundreds of individuals, foundations and corporations boost the impact of philanthropic giving in response to disasters and humanitarian crises by supporting equitable recovery and addressing root causes of vulnerabilities worldwide.

In 2024, CDP awarded approximately $16 million through 70 grants to grantee partners worldwide, demonstrated thought leadership through webinars, blog posts, featured speaking engagements, and other events, and served 20+ philanthropic partners through consulting efforts. In 2020, CDP was a featured nonprofit for the 14th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. CDP has earned Charity Navigator’s Four-Star Charity rating, Candid’s Platinum Transparency seal and is a Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity.

As an organization grounded in racial and intersectional equity, our team members are deeply committed to strengthening communities most vulnerable to disasters because of systemic inequities. We are guided by our valuesof integrity, boldness and innovation, humility, and empathy in all that we do in pursuit of our mission.

Bottom line: We aspire to walk the talk of anti-racism and treat each other and our partners in ways that inspire trust, creativity, learning and care.

Be a part of our fast-growing team that offers countless ways to help communities thrive. Join us!

Responsibilities & Duties

Over the last few years of CDP’s 14-year history, growth has been exponential. CDP has granted over $123 million to more than 676 nonprofits, influenced and educated numerous philanthropists, and grown its base of donors and partners. CDP’s positioning and increased visibility bring a need for increased revenue to support CDP’s mission, strategic plan and growth.

The director of advisory services (DAS) will play a critical role in supporting CDP’s role as a philanthropic-serving organization (PSO). Reporting to the vice president of strategy and innovation, the DAS will lead and manage our external, client-facing advising work.

This includes managing team members engaged in advising efforts and curating and supporting a bench of consultants to engage in advisory services. The DAS will lead advisory-related business development activities, including proposal development, client initiation and stewardship, and contract development and management. In addition, the DAS will oversee meeting facilitation and communications. Ultimately, this person will lead all of CDP’s fee-for-service work in a manner that encourages philanthropy to meet the need for equitable, medium- and long-term disaster recovery and generates earned income revenue for the organization.

The successful candidate will display the following traits:

You are an energetic, persuasive, collaborative thinker and executor of new and existing plans and projects. You provide new and actionable consulting opportunities for clients and CDP on issues at the intersection of philanthropy and disasters. You think strategically to make sense of complex problems, and you can adapt ideas and communicate with a wide variety of potential client audiences, including simplifying language for digestibility to non-experts. You are an excellent project manager with high-level strategic skills to grow this exciting portfolio of work with clarity and ambition.

You are a servant leader who fosters an open and highly equitable environment for colleagues and direct reports. As a member of the strategy and innovation team, you communicate effectively with members of the team and other internal and external stakeholders, conveying your ideas and proposals in a way that is easy to understand and that inspires action. You are a consummate and curious professional, assertive without being domineering, and you can execute with excellence on both discrete and ongoing deliverables. Commitment to the values intrinsic to CDP’s mission and strategy.

Primary responsibilities include:

Expand advisory services work and clientele

• Craft and execute a new Expert Advisory Services (EAS) strategy alongside the VP of SI and with input from across the organization.
• Understand the market for CDP’s services and identify opportunities and challenges, as well as the competitive landscape for similar services.
• Define our menu of client services and explore what and how to scale.
• Lead and manage the consulting client pipeline, including identifying and cultivating potential clients. Business development is a key aspect of this role.
• Build out new/existing advisory services for corporate foundation clientele.
• Create new collateral and marketing/informational materials for dissemination through CDP’s website and other channels.
• Research client prospects before meetings and conferences that CDP staff attend and provide talking points and collateral to grow our portfolio.

Execute and manage client-facing relationships and deliverables

• Craft unique consulting reports and strategies for an array of clients.
• Manage all administrative functions, in partnership with the finance and development teams, relating to contract development and management, budget, and execution with client organizations.
• Partner with the other CDP teams to collaborate on consulting business development and deliverables. As necessary, craft bespoke deliverables, including proposals against RFPs and donor requests.
• Oversee and mentor EAS support staff, providing space for them to lead tasks, guiding them on their supervisory responsibilities and creating opportunities to foster professional growth.
• Review and analyze data to formulate continuous improvement strategies for EAS.
• Represent CDP to the public, including clients, community leaders, social service organizations, disaster experts and colleagues across the field of philanthropy.
• Collaborate with CDP’s communications and development teams to ensure that client stories are shared widely.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of CDP’s work and how to communicate our services and value-add to clients.
• Perform other duties and job-related tasks that may be assigned consistent with the strategic goals of the role, the department and the organization.

Back-office clients

• Manage existing relationships with current back-office clients.
• Maintain ongoing back-office client contracts and execute (in close partnership with the director of education and technical services) the ongoing work associated with the contracts.
• Develop new relationships for this advisory work stream.
• Refine offerings and set correct price points for the menu of products associated with this work stream.

“CDP Corps” creation and management

• Develop a bench of CDP staff experts and other CDP-onboarded consultants across an array of skill sets.
• Create systems for tracking, training and invoicing – project management – of the consultant bench.
• Include consultant bench opportunities in the EAS strategy with special attention to the expansion of services (type and capacity) and pricing that attract a range of clients.

Education and experience requirements:

• ≥ 10 years of relevant, progressive professional experience in delivering consultancy services for clients, particularly within philanthropy, and preferably as part of a consulting firm or organization.
• Advanced to expert knowledge or experience in disasters and/or relevant technical expertise, including supervisory management experience.
• Advanced to expert knowledge in business development with clients and donors.
• Masters in a related field or equivalent work experience.

Preferred knowledge, abilities and skills:

• Experience in/with corporate philanthropy and/or the DAF industry is a plus.
• Understand the disaster recovery and philanthropy landscape and current environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards and trends.
• Progressive leadership experience in disaster management, consulting services and/or philanthropy.
• Superior project management and written communication skills.
• Attention to detail and a strong sense of personal responsibility for work.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to independently manage a range of operational functions and staff.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking with precise attention to detail.
• Ability to work remotely with minimal direct supervision, including managing multiple tasks and projects simultaneously and within a dispersed team.
• The successful candidate will be a mission-driven team player with an entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of humor.

Characteristics

Commitment to the values intrinsic to CDP’s mission and strategy, including the centrality of local leadership, equity and service to marginalized and vulnerable communities.

• Entrepreneurial spirit
• Team player
• Sense of humor

The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.