Partnership Services Director Synergos seeks a motivated, creative and results-oriented leader to fill a newly created position, Director of Partnership Services. This person will initiate, design, and lead a new initiative that provides fee and pro bono consulting support to civil society organizations, community groups, government agencies, corporations and others in all parts of the world wishing to engage in collaborative efforts to address poverty and social justice issues. The position reports to the Senior Director of Partnerships and will be based in New York City.
About The Synergos Institute
Synergos is a nonprofit organization working to reduce poverty and promote equity and social justice for poor and marginalized communities around the world.
During its 20 year history, Synergos has worked collaboratively with leaders and leading organizations in civil society, philanthropy, government and business to expand the opportunities and fair treatment for people who do not have full access to human rights, services to meet their basic human needs or the requisite circumstances to participate in civic affairs. Synergos is a capacity building organization that creates networks of change makers interested and engaged in collaborative initiatives, convenes and supports multi-sector partnerships and conducts and disseminates practical knowledge about partnerships aimed at making systems changes that benefit underdeveloped communities.
Synergos hosts the Global Philanthropists Circle, a peer learning network for eminent social investors and the Synergos Senior Fellows Network, a group of accomplished and innovative social activists. Throughout its history, Synergos has also helped establish, strengthen and partner with an informal network of major development actors from all three sectors. Synergos engages directly in a limited number of multi-sector partnerships and provides advice and counsel to many others. Synergos is in the process of establishing a Knowledge Resource Center to provide educational materials, training and conferences about multi-sector partnerships.
In all of its work, Synergos seeks to bridge divides, bringing together people, ideas and resources to change the circumstances that make life difficult for poor and marginalized communities. We always seek to do this in a sustainable way by empowering those most adversely affected by poverty and discrimination and by strengthening their ability to do what's needed to change their circumstances on an ongoing basis.
Synergos is headquartered in New York and has staff on the US-Mexico border, in Brazil, Southern Africa and India.
Synergos' board of directors has experience working for NGO's, government agencies, international organizations and businesses. Its staff has extensive experience in the field of global development, come from more than a dozen countries and speak 16 languages.
Synergos has an annual operating budget of about $10 million, secured from individual and corporate donors, foundation grants, contracts, earned income and modest endowment.
About the Partnership Group
Synergos' Partnership Group develops and supports collaborative initiatives that address poverty and social justice issues around the world. These collaborations seek to address the root causes of poverty by combining the wisdom, skills, knowledge and experience of government, business, civil society, and the communities most directly affected by the issue being addressed. Examples of current partnerships include: The Partnership for Child Nutrition, The Aboriginal Leadership Initiative and the African Public Health Leadership & Systems Innovation Initiative. See
Synergos: Multi-Stakeholder Partnership program for details.
The Partnerships Group integrates its work closely with Synergos' Senior Fellows and Global Philanthropists Circle networks, other organizations engaged in development work, and Synergos' own staff around the globe. The Partnership Group will also contribute to and benefit from the soon to-be-launched Synergos Knowledge Center.
Synergos plays an actively engaged role in a small number of major partnerships at any given time. In order to complement this direct role in partnerships, realize a broader impact, and formalize services it has historically provided, Synergos is launching a Partnership Services initiative in late 2007. Partnership Services will offer a robust set of consulting and advising services to philanthropists, non-profit organizations, companies, government agencies and others seeking to advance development through inclusive partnerships.
Key Partnership Services activities will include:
- Acting act as a "broker" of partnerships: convening and linking partners through one-on-one introductions, public events, online "partnership marketplaces," etc.
- Delivering services to clients in areas such as: the design and structuring of partnerships, stakeholder mapping and analysis, systems for inclusion and participation, feasibility assessment, convening, work planning, leadership and governance, assessment, communications and other areas.
- Connecting emerging or existing partnerships to the human, financial, and technical resources they need for success.
- Marketing the availability of these services and securing revenue streams to support them.
The ultimate aim of Partnership Services is to help make development partnerships a more inclusive, effective, and impactful strategy for addressing poverty and related issues.
Position Responsibilities
Synergos seeks an entrepreneurial, energetic and accomplished leader to serve as Director of Partnership Services. The broad responsibilities of this position are to:
- Initiate and lead Synergos Partnership Services.
- Develop the business plan for Synergos Partnership Services that identifies an appropriate market niche and develops a compelling value proposition
- Create a menu of consulting services and develop a service delivery plan
- Develop and secure needed talent on the Synergos staff and among others to support this work
- Generate marketing strategy
- Manage a budget and develop revenues that support Partnership Services and other Synergos activities
- Oversee evaluation activities to assess the ultimate impact of this work on the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of equity and social justice
The Partnership Services Director will lead efforts in:
- Analyzing existing best practices and developing new ones that help form an array of service offerings; engaging in ongoing market research to identify new services for clients
- Creating and implementing short, mid, and long-term operational plans
- Generating new business opportunities, designing and delivering consulting engagements for clients, assessing results
- Identifying internal or external resource people for service delivery; forming alliances as needed with other service providers
- Working with Synergos Networks to identify and service internal clients
- Developing marketing and communications materials, with support from Synergos Communications Department
- Monitoring and evaluating the results of Partnership Services activities
- Developing pricing structures for fee based services
- Contributing to thought leadership in the development field and working with the Knowledge Resource Center to identify products and services that meet the needs of those engaged in collaborative efforts to address poverty
- Manage consultants, staff, and volunteers as needed
- Contributing to the overall advancement of the organization
Qualifications & Skills- Experience with collaborative and participatory approaches to address issues of poverty
- At least 10 years working experience that includes work across sectors; at least half of that time in a leadership position
- Relevant business experience with management consulting, start-up ventures, or marketing; relevant non-profit experience in international development, philanthropy or poverty related work
- Demonstrated skill in project management
- Extensive knowledge of the development field
- Ability to work across cultures and to collaborate with others
- At least two years direct experience in living and working in at least one country in Africa, Asia or Latin America
- Direct experience in living/working in more than one country and working with diverse cultural groups
- Excellent communications and marketing skills
- Capacity to simultaneously work on multiple tasks and projects, and set priorities for a challenging workload
- Ability to fundraise
- Masters degree (MBA or degree in international relations, international development, economics, politics, etc.) preferred
Personal Characteristics- High energy, entrepreneurial and creative
- Able to start new things and to take ideas from concept to implementation
- Passionate about addressing issues of poverty and social justice
- Able to work in congruence with Synergos values
- High standards of personal integrity
- Commitment to a collaborative leadership style
- Fluency in English and a second language
Competitive salary, excellent benefits. The position is located in New York City.
To Apply
Please send a cover letter, resume and salary history, in confidence, to
synergos@synergos.org.
No telephone calls please.
The Synergos Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We seek to hire well-qualified applicants from diverse candidate pools.
Partnership Services Director (New York, NY), Synergos
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