Philanthropic Director Search conducted by: waldronhr.com
The Organization Tides is a philanthropic partner and nonprofit accelerator, dedicated to building a world of shared prosperity and social justice founded on equality and human rights, a sustainable environment, healthy individuals and communities, and quality education. As a community of people investing in and committed to modeling ideals crucial to the future of the planet, Tides supports a culture of equity, inclusion, and integrity. With an innovative and systemic approach, Tides provides a diverse menu of services in support of individual and family donors, foundations, corporate partners, and social change leaders seeking to expand their capacity and increase their social impact. As a connector, Tides brings together a large and diverse coalition of mission aligned actors to amplify collective power to scale positive growth. Tides was among the first organizations to create donor-advised funds (DAF) to support progressive charities. Today, Tides offers a wide range of consultative and management services for philanthropic giving and grantmaking of over $300M annually, impact investing, fiscal sponsorship and acceleration services for social ventures, collective initiatives, and advocacy services for policy change. Tides has approximately 100 employees, with headquarters in San Francisco and a small office in New York City. For more information about Tides, please visit https://www.tides.org/.
The Opportunity Tides seeks a Philanthropic Director to join the Client Services (CS) team. The Philanthropic Director will build and steward relationships with individual and foundation donor clients, manage a portfolio of donor-advised and other philanthropic funds, and lead a team of Philanthropic Advisors to do the same. This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer and serves as an integral partner within the four-member team of Client Services directors. This role may be based in San Francisco or New York City. Tides Client Services department interacts directly with Tides clients to provide strategic and management services to drive high-impact, effective philanthropy and scale promising social ventures. The Philanthropic Director is the primary leader for Tides ongoing engagement with existing and new foundation clients and high net worth individuals for collaborative, consultative, and transactional philanthropic services, establishing Tides as an expert and connector in key philanthropic ecosystems and issue areas. In close collaboration with the Strategic Partnerships & Communications team and peers on the Client Services team, the Philanthropic Director will lead and coordinate Client Services engagement to advance Tides grantmaking and impact investing expertise. The Director will be a representative and influencer of Tides strategic voice, mobilizing activities in written publications and events. This individual will manage Client Services attendance and presence at key industry events and conferences, and personally model best practices for high-value engagement and business development at such events.
Key Priorities Team and Program Management The Philanthropic Director has significant team management responsibility to drive programmatic growth for a portfolio with a substantial revenue stream as part of a four-person leadership team that will evolve the Client Services department, enabling highly efficient management services and rigorous strategic advising to position Tides as an industry leader and go-to organization for high-impact social change work. The Director will mentor, develop, and train at least 3 direct reports, 5 report-through team members, and numerous indirect reports, supporting a committed, passionate, knowledgeable staff to set priorities and manage expectations in a high-volume, complex transaction environment. A key priority for the new Director is to personally model and practice the curation and delivery of strategic and subject-matter expertise to a spectrum of clients around a relevant social change issue area and/or an innovative philanthropic approach. Fueling Growth and Impact The Philanthropic Director is responsible for developing, delivering, and marketing a core and enhanced services model for Tides to offer its grantmaking clients. This individual will market and deliver additional and expanded philanthropic and strategic investment opportunities for existing clients. The Director will hold a vision of expanding CS and Tides ability to deepen its understanding and expertise around new issue areas, geographies, and approaches that are aligned with clients interests and impact strategies. This individual is expected to help develop a pipeline of specific new business opportunities and close those opportunities to meet the department s enhanced service goals. Internal Service Innovations The Philanthropic Director is joining Tides during a period when the organization has made long-term investments in systems and process upgrades as part of Tides commitment to continuous improvement in high quality client service and optimal efficiency across departments. This position takes a lead role in managing change with internal and external stakeholders, setting expectations, and ensuring that everyone is equipped to successfully meet client needs during and after implementation always with an eye toward the future vision of proactive, streamlined, and client-centered service. New York-Based Director Should the Philanthropic Director be based in New York City, this individual will be the most senior member of the New York office. As such, the Director will be Tides primary liaison to the philanthropic community on the East Coast, and is expected to establish and grow a proactive presence in that setting.
Ideal Profile The new Philanthropic Director at Tides is a transformative leader who is committed to the vision of shared prosperity and social justice, and passionate about helping grantmaking clients and Tides staff to accelerate their impact and take smart risks. Successful candidates have an entrepreneurial spirit coupled with the persistence and patience required to ensure change initiatives take firm hold. The ideal candidate is proactive, collaborative, and consultative both internally and externally, and approaches problems with humility and emotional intelligence. The Philanthropic Director thrives in a close-knit team characterized by candor, trust, and a bias toward action. This individual has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; a natural talent for leading through agency rather than hierarchy; and a demonstrated ability to lead and manage across geographies. The Philanthropic Director has experience managing expectations and guiding work-streams to a successful conclusion, while maintaining focus on future state, setting audacious goals and motivating staff to achieve them. The ideal candidate is driven to set and uphold high standards of client service, create reasonable objectives, identify low-hanging fruit, and motivate the team to achieve short-term goals in service to the longer-term vision. Successful candidates have the ability to balance external-facing, client-directed work with proactively building the team and its internal processes and systems. The Philanthropic Director is a model for consultative engagement with clients, creating opportunities for staff to learn and master this approach. This individual is passionate about advancing the broader progressive agenda as a consultative partner to a wide variety of clients, and brings an extensive network to connect issues, individuals, and organizations across sectors. This person will be comfortable co-leading the Client Services department with three other Directors and confident in navigating through ambiguity as Tides client work and organizational structure continue to evolve.
Minimum Qualifications Candidates must have a minimum of 12 years of professional experience, with relevant work experience in the field of foundation philanthropy along with strong proven experience at cultivating new and existing relationships with high net worth donors. The selected individual must have experience in new business generation and the ability to apply a consultative lens to business development and client engagement. Successful candidates have experience managing both the revenue and expense aspects of a program budget. Finally, the selected candidate must have strong team leadership and people management experience. To Be Considered If you are interested in being considered for the Philanthropic Director role at Tides, please submit a cover letter and resume to candidateportal.waldronhr.com. The search for a Philanthropic Director is being assisted by a team from Waldron: Jenn Raley Miller Search Director Direct: 415.829.3756 jenn@waldronhr.com Eliza Kinrose Senior Associate Direct: 415.932.6270 eliza@waldronhr.com Mikela Topey Search Associate Direct: 415.529.2261 mikela@waldronhr.com
Waldron is honored to work with Tides in the search for a Philanthropic Director. Tides does amazing work, and we are doing our best to recruit a talented leader who will accelerate this mission. As the consulting partner strategic leaders choose to help attract, engage, and inspire effective leaders, Waldron provides a unique combination of executive search, leadership development, and career transition services across sectors and industries. Our passion is helping people and organizations realize their full potential and increase their impact. Seattle Portland San Francisco waldronhr.com