The Organization
About Cause Effective
Cause Effective transforms nonprofits by partnering with mission-driven leaders to achieve social change. We work with leaders to develop, employ, and expand effective fundraising, governance, and organizational strategies to advance equity and justice.
Founded in 1981, Cause Effective has supported visionary and committed individuals and organizations in the nonprofit sector by providing strategic guidance, tactical training, and coaching support to boost the governance and fundraising productivity of executive directors, development staff, and board members. Our thought leadership provokes the sector to focus on strategic concerns in fundraising and governance relating to equity, access, and ensuring that all professionals have their rightful seat at the table. Cause Effective envisions a future in which nonprofits thrive with empowered leadership and abundant funding to achieve an equitable world.
Each year, Cause Effective helps over 1,500 nonprofit organizations of all missions, types, and sizes across the New York metropolitan area to raise more money, deepen their relationships with donors, create compelling communications, and build stronger boards of directors. More than 85% of Cause Effective’s clients are based in and serve low- and moderate-income communities.
Since 2017, our groundbreaking Money, Power and Race: The Lived Experience of Fundraisers of Color report has been eliciting crucial dialogue on how the intertwined issues of race, class, money, and power are embedded in nonprofit fundraising and governance. We are especially focused on influencing the sector to confront the biases that are endemic in the sector, as well as eradicating the conditions that thwart professionals of color to thrive in fundraising. Cause Effective’s innovative and multifaceted initiative in this area, Preparing the Next Generation, strengthens the sector by addressing this racial and leadership equity gap. Work is underway to launch national replication and expansion for this highly successful program in 2023.
The Cause Effective team is composed of senior consultants with years of development, communications, and governance expertise. All 17 staff members are committed to creating a thriving future for Cause Effective. Across tenure and seniority, the team is involved with decision-making and driving forward strategic priorities related to programming, financial sustainability, fundraising, and communications, with attention to building efficiencies and deepening our board/advisor engagement. Benefitting from digital resources, our fully remote team leverages a virtual work model and convenes regularly in our home base of New York City.
About the Opportunity
On the precipice of exciting expansion, Cause Effective seeks a new Executive Director to bring a growth-oriented approach to building on the strengths of the organization’s 40-year history and looking at new opportunities in the future. The Executive Director will benefit from a new strategic plan, a seasoned staff and network, and a compositionally diverse and committed Board of Directors as they apply their expertise in entrepreneurial leadership. Leveraging Cause Effective’s current work to reach new geographies, while continuing to build and support communities in the New York City area, will be the top priority for the Executive Director.
The team supporting the Executive Director currently includes four direct reports (Director of Programs, Senior Director of Consulting Practice, Senior Director of Operations, and Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation) as part of a staff of nine (including the Executive Director) with eight Affiliate consultants who engage in programmatic partnerships on behalf of Cause Effective. In 2023, Cause Effective will have an expected budget of $1.5m, with generous funding from foundations, corporations, the public sector, and individual donors. Fee-for-service consulting with nonprofit clients supports about one-third of the budget.
Cause Effective is governed by a 13-person Board of Directors that brings together professionals in philanthropy, fundraising, corporations, governance, and consulting. Working as a resource to the Executive Director, Board Members offer their expertise as thought partners, ambassadors, and strategists.
To Apply
This search is being managed by Axis Talent Partners, a boutique search firm that partners with social impact organizations. Interested or potential candidates should submit an application, including a resume detailing their qualifications for the position here.