Strategy, Programs & Organizational Development Consultant

About The Emerging Culinary, Culture & Community Foundation

The Foundation is a Harlem-based, community-centered cultural institution dedicated to preserving, advancing, and activating the foodways of African Americans and the broader African Diaspora as systems of knowledge, cultural authority, and economic opportunity.

Founded by a James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur, author, and cultural activist, the Foundation is building the infrastructure to document, interpret, and sustain one of the world’s most influential yet underrecognized bodies of cultural knowledge. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in Delaware and currently operates under fiscal sponsorship with the Fund for the City of New York (FCNY).

Consulting Opportunity

The Foundation seeks an experienced Strategy, Programs & Organizational Development Consultant to help translate the Foundation’s mission, vision, and emerging strategic priorities into practical programs, implementation systems, organizational capacity, and an actionable roadmap for its planning and launch phase.

The consultant will work collaboratively with the Founder, Board Chair, designated Board members, the Partnerships & Resource Development Consultant, community and institutional partners, funders, and other advisors. This is a senior-level, deliverables-based independent consulting engagement—not an employee or ongoing management position.

Key Deliverables

1. 1. Six-Month Strategy and Implementation Workplan
   2. A prioritized workplan identifying activities, milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, deliverables, decision points, and target dates, including Grantmaker-supported planning activities.
   3. Strategic Organizational Roadmap
   4. A phased roadmap connecting the Foundation’s strategic priorities to programmatic, organizational, partnership, funding, infrastructure, and capacity requirements.
   5. Pilot Program Development Plans
   6. Detailed plans for at least two pilot programs or public humanities experiences, including objectives, intended audiences, collaborators, responsibilities, timelines, resource requirements, logistics, anticipated outcomes, and preliminary evaluation measures.
   7. Pilot Implementation and Learning Documentation
   8. Coordination support for pilots scheduled during the engagement, along with documentation of results, stakeholder feedback, lessons learned, risks, and implications for future programming.
   9. Organizational Capacity and Staffing Recommendations
   10. Recommendations regarding organizational structure, core capabilities, future staffing, consulting support, volunteer engagement, partnership capacity, and Board roles needed for the next phase of development.
   11. Final Planning-Phase Transition Report
   12. A concise report summarizing accomplishments, key decisions, systems and tools established, lessons from pilots and stakeholders, outstanding priorities, risks, opportunities, and recommended next steps.

Preferred Qualifications

The ideal consultant will bring:

• • Significant experience in nonprofit strategy, organizational development, institution building, program development, public humanities, arts and culture, community engagement, education, hospitality, or related fields.
  • Demonstrated ability to translate mission and strategy into implementable programs, workplans, operating practices, and organizational systems.
  • Experience designing and implementing public-facing programs, cultural experiences, humanities initiatives, or community-centered activities.
  • Strong project-management capability across multiple stakeholders, priorities, budgets, timelines, and deliverables.
  • Experience working with founders, boards, early-stage organizations, cultural practitioners, scholars, artists, chefs, community leaders, and institutional partners.
  • Sound judgment, strong facilitation skills, excellent written and verbal communication, and comfort working in an evolving environment.
  • Demonstrated commitment to African American history, African Diaspora history and culture, foodways, cultural preservation, public humanities, or aligned fields.

Opportunity to help build an Emerging Culinary, Culture & Community Foundation

English required, other languages welcome