VP of Strategic Partnerships

Job Description

About Catchafire:

• Catchafire is a leading social impact startup with a mission to provide talented individuals with meaningful pro-bono experiences in order to build capacity for social good organizations.

• Catchafire is a team of highly motivated individuals out to disrupt “giving” as we know it. Catchafire seeks to help people volunteer to their highest and best use, while reestablishing and reinvigorating the way we volunteer.

• Catchafire’s culture is a unique blend of social enterprise, tech startup, and classroom. We hire people who at their core are social entrepreneurs, and we believe that every individual who joins Catchafire has the power to be an incredible and large-scale changemaker.

• We are paving the way for a new type of business model, one that demonstrates that you can focus on social mission and build a successful business at the same time. We are at the intersection of many disparate worlds (for-profit and nonprofit; purpose and business; talent development and corporate social responsibility), and we seek to break down the barriers between these silos to allow social good and community, talent and resources to flow more freely.

Essence of the Role:

• The VP of Foundation Partnerships is responsible for cultivating relationships with foundation leaders in order to build Catchafire’s foundation business and establish Catchafire as a thought leader across the sector. The VP of Foundation Partnerships is also responsible for ensuring that we provide excellent service to our foundation clients with the goal of establishing Catchafire as a critical solution for the philanthropic sector’s capacity building and civic engagement needs.

Responsibilities

Develop Partnerships & Establishing Catchafire as a Thought Leader to Build the Foundation Business:

• Cultivate relationships with our existing foundation clients so that they serve as advocates, ambassadors and connectors to new, potential clients
• Conceive of and lead innovative and compelling convenings of foundation leaders (i.e. a Summit, monthly dinners, etc) to position Catchafire as a thought leader on capacity building and civic engagement
• Develop a strong presence for Catchafire in leading philanthropic publications and key conferences as contributors and speakers respectively

Foundation Accounts Team Leadership & Management:

• Lead, mentor, and build an excellent team of Foundation Accounts Managers and Accounts Associates
• Ensure that the Foundation Accounts Team effectively manages client relationships through the entire lifecycle of the account which will lead to renewal business
• Work closely with Business Development, Product, Customer Success, and Marketing to identify and execute on opportunities to optimize the Catchafire service offering and product for enterprise clients Work closely with the Business Development Team to develop proposals and design the program for foundation accounts
• Translate industry knowledge and a keen understanding of client challenges into opportunities for Catchafire to provide an elevated service to clients
• Work closely with the CEO and Business Strategist to manage the economics of the Foundation Accounts Team and create systems to optimize how we service enterprise clients
• Forecast and track key account metrics and develop best practices regarding account management to share with team and company leaders

Requirements

Rainmaker:

• You have demonstrated ability to create demand and sustain relationships for a visionary product or service. You are often regarded as a thought leader.

Manage through relationships:

• 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 can effectively read people to know what is going on in the room in order to calibrate the level of interaction in a variety of scenarios. You see opportunities via relationships; you create a sense of mutual accountability, inspire action, and follow up effectively to ensure momentum.

Entrepreneurial:

• You maximize the resources around you to chart a path to the goal.

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.

Visualize path to goal:

• You are extremely strategic. You understand how decisions get made, you can take in multiple inputs at the same time, and you evaluate what choices are on the table in order to take action and chart a path forward. You are a seasoned project manager.

Creatively solve problems working backwards from the objective:

• You arrive quickly at an understanding of the client’s objectives and the root causes behind an issue, including any issues that might be in tension with one another. You solve the problem in a resourceful, analytical way that is in service to Catchafire but also meets the client’s own business objectives. You can drive this kind of problem solving in real time, working with clients or others to help them see the implications of their objectives for what needs to be done.

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.

Structured delegator:

• As senior most member of the Foundation Accounts Team, you are highly skilled at managing cross-functional projects to fulfill client objectives. You give clear, well-defined assignments, and you effectively manage people to own significant responsibilities and hold them accountable. An effective leader in this role can engage their team without falling into destructive micro-management, going deep while still conveying respect for team members and commitment to team members making and owning decisions.

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 teach people how to “own” their work, and you do not need to micro-manage because you are sponsoring A players. You only build A teams, and you know what an A team is because you have learned the hard way in building and managing B teams.