Vice President, 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 the 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 sustainable, long term partnership opportunities via thought leadership and key relationships. By the end of 2020, Catchafire had established over 60 programs supported by almost 80 foundations and grantmakers. The continued success of these partnerships (and the growing portfolio) through excellent partnership management and service delivery is critical to our growth over the next 5 years and beyond.
The essence of your role will be to lead a team of Account Managers overseeing a significant portion of our partnership portfolio with the task of operationalizing and finding efficiencies in order to scale the function while driving excellence and high customer lifetime value. This work will secure our high portfolio renewal rate (90-95%), drive growth of existing partnerships and support the development of new partnerships by collaborating with our new business team and other internal Catchafire teams as appropriate.
You will lead and drive the partnership renewal arc at a portfolio level end-to-end: from designing and collaborating on systems for efficient relationship delivery, identifying portfolio level trends and consulting on solutions, managing a robust portfolio, cultivating relationships with decision makers at various levels within partner organizations to build demand for Catchafire, and effectively communicating the value of Catchafire.
Attributes
- Growth-oriented and decisive people 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. You manage to people’s strengths, and your goal is to help them become the best they can be through articulating clear expectations, coaching, teaching by example and setting up structures and processes to support the work. 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.
- Expert partnerships builder: You are an experienced strategic partnership and relationship builder and seen as a trusted advisor. 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 as 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.
- Drive and execute a vision: You can see the long-term vision for the partnerships renewal portfolio-based on where Catchafire is headed, and can partner closely with other leaders 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 - in particular in coaching and supporting your direct reports to execute the partnerships vision. You’ll also be expected to contribute to Catchafire’s broad sales strategy and vision, the evolution of our offering, and to collaborate excellently cross-functionally within Catchafire.
- Compelling communicator: You are an expert listener that knows that excellent communications start with first understanding your audience be they internal or external. You are skilled at composing content at each stage of a partnership building process and can do so expediently. You create clear, concise materials that make your audience feel heard while presenting a persuasive path forward.
Responsibilities
- Lead a portfolio of existing clients, creating systems and processes and leveraging the talent of the account managers reporting to you to:
- Understand the landscape for the portfolio you are assigned and efficiently and effectively create and cultivate senior relationships in order to expand and deepen our partnerships and maximize long-term retention
- Support the development and execution of the Partnerships renewal strategy owned by the Head of Partnerships, including designing processes, systems and structures for scalability
- Inform and closely collaborate on creating scalable tools and executing initiatives to support the health and efficiency of the portfolio, which could include pricing models, deal structures, proposals, supporting marketing collateral and presentations to drive forward the sale
- 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, helping to shape our offering, and ensuring that the partnerships team operates effectively as connective tissue between our existing partnership portfolio and the rest of the organization
- Supporting and contributing to our brand and value proposition evolution by driving or supporting go to market testing and roll out of new initiatives and messaging
Experience / Background
In order to be successful in this role you must meet most, 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 managing teams of relationship managers and 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
- Experience in a leadership capacity advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across a department or organization
How to Apply
If our values resonate with you, email your resume to [email protected]. Please specify "Vice President, 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 NYC, though we will be working remotely as long as COVID-19 persists. We consider our employees’ safety as a top priority and we will continue to assess our return date and when we will resume work travel as the situation progresses. We also provide accommodations to help with home office set up.
The Associate Product Manager role may be remote full time, with the expectation that the employee is willing and able to travel to the NYC office periodically as deemed necessary and beneficial.
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