New York, NY

The Organization

TCC Group is a mission-driven strategy consulting firm committed to helping diverse social actors strengthen and scale their work. We are committed to addressing complex social problems by heightening our clients’ understanding of their collaborative role in society. A Certified B Corporation founded in 1980, we partner with foundations, nonprofits, and corporate responsibility programs of all shapes and sizes. We provide an array of services that span strategic planning and program development, foundation and grants management, landscape research and organizational assessment, evaluation and organizational learning, and capacity building.

TCC Group’s staff of 30 professionals are incisive strategists, critical thinkers, and facilitative leaders.

We typically work in teams of consultants that are assembled to reflect our client’s consulting needs and our staff’s areas of expertise. Our consultants bring years of practical experience and leadership with foundations and nonprofit organizations; most typically have at least a Master’s degree as well. We work with organizations of various lifecycle stages, across a broad range of issues, including youth and education, civic capacity, policy and advocacy, environment, health and human services, arts and culture, immigration reform, criminal justice, gender, and human rights. As strategy consultants, our fundamental role is to guide clients in doing more impactful work by helping them make informed decisions and manage their work effectively and efficiently in order to support lasting change. Our work typically engages our foundation clients as active participants and collaborators.

Position Overview

TCC is currently seeking an exceptional and versatile full-time Senior Consultant to join the firm’s Philanthropy Team. We work with a broad range of philanthropic entities, including private, family, and community foundations, helping them address fundamental questions about their mission, vision, impact, programs and operations. We support funders in developing and strengthening a broad diversity of strategies to advance their agenda and to achieve a more just and equitable world.

The Senior Consultant will lead, manage, and/or advise projects in strategic planning, grantmaking strategy development, foundation learning and capacity building, funder collaboration, and family foundation management. Beyond direct client work, the Senior Consultant will contribute to TCC Group’s thought leadership and sector service through means such as producing published articles, presenting at conferences and webinars, and serving on philanthropy sector leadership bodies. The Senior Consultant will also partner with the Director of Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships in identifying new client prospects and in cultivating, supporting, and sustaining foundation client relationships.

Deep knowledge of the philanthropic sector is a must; prior experience as a grantmaker (in an independent, family, community, or public foundation context) is strongly desired. We are looking for someone with exceptional research and communication skills (both written and verbal); demonstrated capacity to analyze complex organizational and social problems and to present research information clearly and crisply; expertise in group facilitation, including a track record of enabling executive-level decision-making; and a history of success in stewarding productive client relationships and managing in-house staff. The successful candidate will possess a very high degree of social and emotional intelligence, a sense of humor, and a commitment to respectful collaboration. This individual will be self-directed, work well in team settings with diverse staff and institutional partners, and (very importantly) be able to produce and deliver very high quality products while juggling multiple client engagements simultaneously. The position requires someone who is stimulated by working within a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Director of Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships, this position includes the following responsibilities:

Strategy and Governance Advising

•Assessing organizational and/or portfolio strengths and challenges

•Conducting landscape analyses in funded areas, or areas of future interest, to identify strategic opportunities, challenges, and prospects for building multi-party partnerships and funder alignment

•Developing effective grantmaking approaches and complementary resource investments

•Assessing the institutional capacity of foundation clients and guiding their approach to improve and strengthen institutional systems and governance

Research

•Designing and executing a research agenda to inform strategy planning

•Collecting and analyzing data through strategies including interviews, focus groups, surveys, secondary data, and review of client organizational materials, published research studies, and other qualitative and quantitative sources

•Leading and actively participating in team meetings to discuss and develop findings and recommendations

•Developing written reports and presentations summarizing analysis and recommendations

Facilitation and Presentation

•Planning and facilitating meetings and retreats with boards, leadership staff, and other key stakeholders

•Fostering learning, shared consensus, and collective decision-making on strategic and operational issues

•Overseeing and/or preparing written materials and presentations for clients

Thought Leadership

•Individually and in teams, authoring articles, blogs, e-letters, and other written materials reflecting practical wisdom gleaned from philanthropic sector engagements

•Presenting at philanthropy sector conferences, webinars, and other peer forums

Business Development

•Developing and implementing marketing strategies to attract new mission-driven work to TCC

•Identifying prospective foundation clients and networking with funders in various sector settings

•Overseeing and/or preparing approach and materials for meetings with prospective clients

•Drafting proposals, including proposed budgets and workplans

Foundation Management

•Support in overseeing, managing, and/or building TCC Group’s foundation management practice, including:

– identifying prospective family foundation clients

– conducting due diligence on grantees of foundation management clients

-researching and/or advising on portfolio growth and grantee diversification

– stewarding grantee relationships

– overseeing and/or strengthening foundation management routine processes and systems

Client Relations

•Building and sustaining productive client relations, including email and telephone communication, and in-person meetings

Desired Skills/Background

Education:

•Advanced degree (MA or PhD) in a relevant field.

Experience

•A minimum of eight years of relevant work experience in the philanthropic sector, consulting experience

•Experience working in diverse communities and across social, economic and cultural differences

•Record of publication in peer review journals, blogs, e-letters, or other media outlets

•Supervisory experience

Strongly preferred:

•Previous consulting experience

Qualifications

•Social and emotional intelligence: ability to work well in diverse teams; make quick and productive connection with diverse organizational clients; “read the temperature” of a room through skilled facilitation, enabling consensus; and remain calm, productive, and upbeat in a high pressured, fast paced, constantly changing environment. Commitment to personal and professional growth; intellectual curiosity, creativity, and desire professional challenge

•Communication and presentation skills (verbal and written): ability to present complex concepts, findings and recommendations in succinct, salient and readable prose (memos, reports, published articles, etc.); and be able to articulately communicate information of a complex and/or sensitive nature in person and through various media.

•Analytical skills: ability to tackle large and complex problems in topical areas of interest by parsing out issues, weighing pros and cons, identifying common themes and patterns, and developing recommendations for consideration.

•Interpersonal relational skills: ability to interpret and work productively within diverse organizational cultures, enabling strong rapport and productive consensus among boards and leadership staff.

•Management skills: ability to seamlessly juggle multiple projects simultaneously, providing different roles and services, addressing different topical areas, supervising and/or contributing to team work, managing work flow, and ensuring that high quality materials are delivered on time

•Temperament: Congenial, collaborative, respectful, self-reflective, high degree of integrity, strong work ethic, sense of humor.