Senior Director, Advisory Services

Taproot Foundation is a national nonprofit powering the next generation of pro bono service. For more than 20 years, we’ve connected nonprofits with high-quality, high-trust support from skilled professionals—so they can meet urgent challenges, grow their impact, and lead with confidence.

Today, we’re expanding that vision. We’re innovating our platform, deepening partnerships, and shaping a future-focused pro bono marketplace. Our aim: a system that meets nonprofit needs with ease, speed, and excellence—lowering barriers to access, centering community voices, and embracing innovation, including AI.

The Opportunity

Advisory Services is one of Taproot’s flagship service offerings—a cornerstone of how we create social impact. For 15+ years, we’ve connected companies, philanthropies, skilled volunteers, and nonprofits through high-quality, custom pro bono engagements that tackle urgent challenges, strengthen organizations, and unlock lasting change. This practice has helped tens of thousands of nonprofits access the expertise they need—while equipping over 100 companies and philanthropies with signature pro bono programs that build talent, engage teams, and strengthen communities.

The Senior Director, Advisory Services will co-lead this practice in partnership with our Director, Advisory Services. Together, you’ll steward a team of 25 skilled consultants, program designers, and pro bono practitioners. While the Director focuses on day-to-day practice management and service delivery, the Senior Director is responsible for practice strategy, growth, and business development—ensuring that Taproot not only sustains excellence but also expands and shapes the next generation of pro bono service. You’ll directly supervise two Managing Consultants (who lead 8 direct reports) while serving as a visible leader across the full Advisory team, corporate partners and the field.

We’re looking for a builder—someone who pairs business acumen with deep field expertise, experience with nonprofit capacity-building, and the presence to tell a compelling story that moves corporate partners, philanthropic investors, and the field. This role blends vision, credibility, and execution: you’ll lead strategy and growth while keeping a hand in the work—owning a portfolio of client relationships, contributing to engagements, and shaping new offerings.

The successful candidate will bring subject matter expertise in corporate consulting, CSR, or social impact strategy—and it will be a bonus if you have designed and implemented pro bono or skills-based volunteering initiatives. You will be expected to credibly influence executive conversations, set strategy grounded in field knowledge, and serve as a respected leader shaping where pro bono goes next.

What You’ll Do

Set and Drive Strategy

• Define and execute the vision, growth plan, and service model for Advisory Services, ensuring alignment with Taproot’s enterprise-wide goals.
• Translate strategic priorities into scalable offerings, pricing strategies, and measurable outcomes.
• Stay ahead of sector trends—tracking where corporate investment in pro bono is headed and how nonprofit needs are evolving—and embed those insights into team strategy and client offerings.
• Integrate AI, emerging technologies, and future of work trends into delivery models to keep Taproot at the forefront of innovation in pro bono.
• Design and continuously evolve Taproot’s consulting models, ensuring they reflect best practices, address nonprofit and client needs, and advance the field of CSR, philanthropy, and skills-based volunteering.
• Mentor and support Advisory Services colleagues in applying these strategies—building their capacity to anticipate trends, design solutions, and carry strategy into execution.
• Partner with senior leadership across Taproot to ensure Advisory Services’ strategy is integrated with the organization’s enterprise growth and positioning.

Lead Growth & Partnerships

• Secure high-impact corporate and philanthropic partnerships, with responsibility for the overall practice’s revenue growth.
• Cultivate, close, develop, and expand executive-level relationships with senior corporate and sector leaders.
• Mentor, coach, and partner with Advisory Services team members to build their business development and partner cultivation skills.
• Collaborate closely with the Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships & Advancement to develop shared strategies, tools, and assets that drive both Advisory Services and Taproot’s broader growth agenda.
• Work in partnership with the AS team and Taproot’s senior leadership (including the CEO, Chief Program Officer, Senior Director of Pro Bono Services, and Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Advancement) on strategy, client development, and major partnership conversations.
• Identify opportunities to align Advisory Services with Taproot’s broader offerings—expanding partnerships in ways that advance the success of the whole organization.
• Work with other leaders, including the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, to shape external messaging, thought leadership, and case-making to position Taproot as an innovator in the pro bono marketplace.

Elevate Taproot’s Influence

• Act as a visible ambassador and subject matter expert, representing Taproot in high-stakes meetings, conferences, and publications.
• Serve as a compelling storyteller—shaping the narrative on the value and impact of pro bono service.
• Contribute thought leadership that advances the field’s understanding of skills-based volunteering and innovation.

Lead and Develop the Team

• Directly supervise two Managing Consultants and support them in coaching and managing their 8 direct reports.
• Participate in cross-organizational planning for growth, fundraising, and business development.
• Partner with the Director of Advisory Services to ensure seamless service delivery, renewals, and growth across the 25-person practice. Foster collaboration, inclusion, and accountability.
• Invest in talent development across the team—strengthening consulting skills, business development capacity, and leadership growth.
• Support a culture of excellence, learning, and innovation that positions Advisory Services as a model for the field.

Contribute to Organizational Leadership

• Serve on Taproot’s Organizational Leadership Council, helping shape enterprise strategy, culture, team management, and change management.
• Partner across Strategic Partnerships & Advancement, Marketing, Finance, and Product to advance enterprise goals.
• Oversee Advisory Services strategic and growth planning, financial forecasting, and financial performance measurement.
• Model cross-functional leadership, ensuring Advisory Services is both benefiting from and contributing to organizational priorities and innovation.

Job requirements

What You Bring

Partnership & Business Development

• Proven ability to proactively identify, cultivate, close, and expand executive-level corporate partnerships that generate significant revenue—especially with Fortune 500 companies.
• Knowledge of both corporate social impact and corporate L&D environments, with comfort influencing philanthropies as a growing sector partner.
• Strong communication skills as both a storyteller and thought leader—able to be compelling in high-stakes meetings, conference stages, and 1:1 executive conversations.

Field Expertise & Impact Orientation

• Deep subject matter expertise in CSR, L&D, social impact strategy, or pro bono service delivery; direct experience designing and implementing skills-based volunteering initiatives preferred.
• Passion for advancing nonprofit capacity-building through pro bono service, with a deep and direct understanding of nonprofit needs and the fast-changing nonprofit landscape.

Leadership & Team Growth

• Senior leadership experience across sectors—corporate, professional services, CSR/corporate social impact, and/or nonprofit—with demonstrated success in revenue growth and team development.
• Experience leading teams, managing high-performing talent.
• Builder orientation—comfortable designing new tools, offerings, and approaches in evolving contexts.
• A collaborative, adaptable, and inclusive leadership style—and a deep commitment to Taproot’s mission.

Strategy & Innovation

• Strategic and entrepreneurial mindset, with a track record of scaling services or organizations for growth.
• Curiosity and applied experience leveraging emerging tools—including AI—to innovate in services, partnerships, or operations.
• Ability to navigate complexity, influence senior stakeholders, and align diverse interests toward shared goals.
• Strong analytical skills to translate data and insights into strategy, measurement, and impact.

Our Values

Our team values pragmatic optimism, impact orientation, playful professionalism, and progress—and we’re excited to welcome a new leader who shares those values.

Additional Information

This is a remote role (anywhere in the continental U.S.) reporting to Taproot’s Chief Program Officer. Travel up to 20% expected.