Senior Consultant

Position Summary

The JCA Senior Consultant plays the primary role in leading client engagements and ensuring that projects successfully achieve their objectives. The Senior Consultant provides overall direction to the project team and manages many aspects of the client relationship. The Senior Consultant is also responsible for identifying and securing new business opportunities and renewing existing clients.

JCA provides strategic consulting to the world's leading nonprofits. Since 1988, we have helped nonprofit organizations work smarter. As the first and largest independent consulting firm dedicated solely to the technical and operational needs of nonprofits, JCA has uncommon insight into the challenges our clients face. To work at JCA, you must adhere to our core values:

• We take our work seriously.
• We hold ourselves personally accountable for our work.
• We are honest, no matter what.
• We are fair and respectful to our clients and to each other.
• Excellence drives us.

Position Requirements

Nonprofit knowledge

A JCA Senior Consultant requires expertise in the work our clients do. You should be knowledgeable enough to give the impression that you could sit in the client’s seat and do the jobs. Specific areas of knowledge include:

• Major gift fundraising
• Moves management
• Membership
• Direct marketing
• Special events
• Corporate fundraising
• Foundation fundraising
• Planned giving
• Recurring giving
• General admissions
• Reserved seat ticketing
• Pricing / Revenue Management
• Facility Management
• Constituent Relationship Management

Client Product Expertise

A JCA Senior Consultant must demonstrate proficiency in the products used by our clients. Senior consultants must have a solid grasp of constructs and concepts related to CRM, development, ticketing, finance, and the web tools used by our clients. In addition to the conceptual underpinnings, a Senior Consultant must be able to demonstrate expertise with a few of the following systems:

• The Raiser’s Edge
• DPO
• Tessitura
• Tessitura Web API
• SunGard Advance
• Artifax
• Giftworks
• BBNC API
• Convio
• MS Access
• MS Excel

Analytical Skills

This skill comprises three parts:

• Prepare for and run interviews that uncover the fundamental issues causing the problems you are there to solve and expose problems the client may not recognize.
• Take large amounts of potentially complex information collected during the interviews and organize it using a logical structure to gain a better understanding of the information. This requires keeping the right information and excluding information that does not inform the project objective.
• Apply consulting expertise to create actionable recommendations. Ultimately, this is the ability to construct a persuasive argument.

Communication Skills

JCA Senior Consultants must be excellent communicators. This includes speaking, writing, flow-charting and presenting. "Analysis" is where we decide what to say. Communication is ability to deliver the message effectively.

Project Management

Project management is the ability to define and control a project. The client and JCA must share a common understanding on how long something will take, how much it will cost, and the definition of success. The Senior Consultant controls the project according to the agreed upon scope and manages the inevitable change. A senior consultant is able to manage projects independently and lead clients to successful outcomes.

Positive Client Reviews

We understand that sometimes honoring our core values means making some recommendations that may not be easy for clients to hear. We understand that personalities oftentimes play a role in perception and the measure for this is not a simple grade based on client surveys. However, a consultant should have good reviews from key client staff and the client should want to hire JCA again.

Ability to Manage Project Staff

Projects often require multiple staff.  The senior consultant is the able to assign work to another consultant, manage that work, and hold the staff person accountable for it.

Travel

Extensive travel (50% -80%) may be required.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated understanding of the nonprofit sector
• Previous consulting experience
• Minimum of an undergraduate degree
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to lead interviews and meetings with client staff, including executive and senior level
• CRM software experience in at least one of the systems mentioned above
• Project management experience, PMI certification preferred
• Solid understand of technical issues related to consulting: databases, report writing, web, and systems integrations

Benefits

• Competitive salary range based on experience and performance
• Performance bonuses
• Paid vacation and sick time
• 401k and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) 
• Health insurance
• Group life insurance
• Long-term disability
• Flex spending

Please send resume to jobs@jcainc.com and put "Senior Consultant" in the title. No phone calls, please.