The Director, Strategic Services oversees Aperio’s writing- and design-related offerings and coordinates their fulfillment—bringing rigorous intentionality to every aspect of this work. Day-to-day, the Director is responsible for the consistent, quality, and timely completion of writing- and design-related deliverables. To complete deliverables, the Director uses all available resources, including the Client Services team, freelancers, and their own writing skills. The Director maintains a rich and multi-dimensional understanding of consulting as a business practice and continually resources the Client Services team to achieve ever-greater impact and efficiency. The Director also contributes to the amplification of Aperio’s purpose-driven messaging and business development efforts.

Writing shared services (50%)

The Director serves as an extension of Aperio’s Client Services team, overseeing all writing-based major deliverables, including (but not limited to): case statements, funding opportunities, major proposals for donors, and reports. The Director is responsible for creating the vision, strategy, scope, and framework for writing shared serves and ensuring its consistent, reliable, and seamless execution. The Director contributes to specific writing-focused deliverables, in addition to coordinating work done by Aperio’s network of freelancers.

• Approach all interactions with clients and Aperio staff with curiosity, seizing each opportunity to learn
• Collaborates with the Strategic Services team to provide generous and intentional support to the client services team, exhibiting the highest standards of ‘customer service’ orientation
• Define the scope of writing shared services available to Client Services teams as they lead partnerships with nonprofits nationwide
• Build capabilities to support the submission, prioritization, and completion of writing deliverables
• Maintain comprehensive knowledge of upcoming writing deliverables and, in collaboration with Client Services, ensure robust and clear resourcing—whether through Client Services, freelances, or the Director’s own contributions
• Lead collaboration and queue management with freelance writers and graphic designers
• Contribute directly to writing deliverables
• Provide ‘quality control’ on all writing and design deliverables, including those completed by freelancers and independently by the Client Services team
• Align all deliverables with Aperio’s fundraising model and approach
• Continually enhance and streamline writing queue and support request processing, prioritization, and fulfillment

Product development (20%)

The Director, Strategic Services takes a ‘macro’ view of Aperio’s resources—time, talent, and investments—and helps optimize how they are leveraged to provide meaningful, quality, and responsive services to clients. In collaboration with Client Services, Business Development, and other Strategic Services team members, the Director defines Aperio’s writing- and design-related offerings, leads the process of ‘productizing’ and ‘operationalizing’ offerings, and builds end-to-end resources that streamline service delivery. In addition, the Director contributes to the development and review of resources for other focus areas.

• Proactively study and learn from industry experts, conferences, articles, and webinars and share interesting findings with the Aperio team
• Build and continually enhance Aperio’s writing services, integrating feedback from clients and staff
• Oversee the development and continual enhancement of a robust suite of writing support resources for the Client Services team, including: a resource library of guides and templates, training videos and workshops, a Q&A email, and ‘office hours’
• Review resources developed for other focus areas to ensure clear, concise, and compelling communication

Business development writing support (30%)

Contribute writing expertise to Aperio’s sales and marketing efforts, with a focus of articulating and amplifying our ‘case for change’ and the resources that enable nonprofits to improve fundraising.

• Develop content to share with Aperio’s community, such as free guides, templates, tools, and blogs/articles
• Collaborate with marketing to articulate Aperio’s offerings to public and prospective clients
• Support the Business Development team in developing custom proposals for prospective clients
• Support the Business Development team in developing marketing content for Aperio

• 5+ years’ nonprofit experience, with direct experience in writing for relationship-based fundraising (major gifts, foundations, or corporate partnerships)
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects to completion in a complex environment
• Outstanding organizational and time-management skills and ability
• Superb relationship management, interpersonal, and communication (written and oral) skills
• Strong storytelling skills
• Openness to the ever-changing, dynamic environment of a start-up company
• Eagerness to learn new knowledge and skills
• Ability to travel for assignments, as needed, up to 50% of time