other
Posted Apr 28Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning
at ACLU
New York, United StatesHybrid
Responsibilities
- Support affiliates in establishing lightweight monitoring practices that enable leadership teams and boards to track progress and adjust strategy as conditions evolve.
- Track strategic plan implementation progress and support course correction as conditions evolve.
- Maintain strict confidentiality and discretion when engaging with affiliate boards and executive leadership, particularly when this work involves sensitive matters such as organizational health, leadership transitions, financial sustainability, and governance challenges.
- Develop the tools, resources, and systems that enable effective strategic planning across the nationwide enterprise.
- Oversee and resource a vetted pool of consultants supporting affiliate planning processes, ensuring quality, methodological consistency, and alignment with ASNI planning principles while adapting to affiliate context.
- Develop tools and learning resources—including case studies and peer exchanges—that help affiliates address common planning challenges and share innovations, learnings, and effective approaches to scale across the network.
- Advise departmental leaders managing affiliate grant portfolios to strengthen the impact and durability of affiliate strategic investments; review and synthesize affiliate grant reports for department leadership.
- Develop and apply criteria to prioritize affiliate strategic planning engagements based on organizational need, timing, readiness, and potential enterprise impact.
- Ensure national priorities and opportunities are communicated to affiliates in coordination with relevant national teams.
- Identify recurring structural challenges or emerging opportunities across affiliates and elevate them to department leadership to inform enterprise-level decision making.
Requirements
- experience in strategic planning, organizational development, or a closely related field.
- experience leading complex planning processes with senior leaders, boards, and multi-stakeholder organizations. Substantial
- experience working with federated, networked, or multi-entity organizations.
- Strong understanding of organizational systems, governance, budgeting, and people management in mission-driven organizations.
- Proven ability to work across lines of authority and influence without direct control.
- Familiarity with labor relations, unionized workplaces, or rapid organizational growth environments. •
- Experience partnering with legal, advocacy, communications, and political programs.
Benefits
- At their request, help affiliates steward their strategic planning processes, using a unified but flexible methodology grounded in organizational diagnostics, inclusive planning processes, equity considerations, and long-term sustainability.
- Center and embed the principles of equity, inclusion and belonging in their work by demonstrating commitment to diversity with an approach that respects and values multiple perspectives
- Deep commitment to equity and inclusion organizational practices. Preferred
- Ability to balance standardization with local context and autonomy COMPENSATION The ACLU is committed to equity, transparency, and clarity in pay.
- Consistent with our compensation philosophy, there is a set salary for each role based on geographic work location.
- The annual salary for this position is $167,568.00 ( Level E ), reflecting the salary of a position based in New York, NY. Salaries are subject to a regional pay adjustment if authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting. For details on our pay structure, please visit: https://www.aclu.org/careers/ACLU_Geographic_Pay_Structure-July_2024.pdf WHY THE ACLU
- Time away to focus on the things that matter with a generous paid time-off policy
- benefits (including medical, dental and vision coverage, parental leave, gender affirming care & fertility treatment)
- We support employee growth and development through annual professional development funds, internal professional development programs and workshops OUR COMMITMENT TO ACCESSIBILITY, EQUITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
- Accessibility, equity, diversity and inclusion are core values of the ACLU and central to our work to advance liberty, equality, and justice for all.
- For us diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are not just check-the-box activities, but a chance for us to make long-term meaningful change.
Contact
- If you are a qualified individual with a disability and need assistance applying online, please email benefits.hrdept@aclu.org .
Additional details
- The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning in the Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives (ASNI) Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY. This is a hybrid role that has in-office
- requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month.
- The Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives Department (ASNI) builds state capacity and strengthens and maintains the connections between the ACLU and its network of 54 state affiliates and the 1,500 staff who work out of the state offices.
- Their work constitutes an unparalleled bulwark in the defending and advancing of civil liberties and civil rights.
- The Department staff lead efforts to share knowledge, talent, and skill across the organization, building the next generation of civil rights leaders and positioning the organization for future challenges.
- Reporting to the National Director, Affiliate Support and Nationwide initiatives , the Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning is a senior role within Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives (ASNI) responsible for strengthening the quality, rigor, and impact of strategic planning across the ACLU’s nationwide enterprise.
- The position exists to ensure that affiliates have the frameworks, tools, and guidance needed to define their priorities and translate them into coherent, executable strategies that build durable institutional capacity and advance the ACLU’s mission across all states.
- Working in partnership with affiliate leaders and national colleagues, the Senior Advisor helps steward strategic planning processes that integrate program strategy, organizational capacity, governance, financial sustainability, and power-building goals.
- The role supports affiliates in navigating complex organizational environments—including rapid growth, leadership transitions, labor complexity, and heightened legal and political risk—by using strategic planning as a disciplined tool to strengthen alignment, clarify priorities, and build long-term resilience.
- The Senior Advisor also serves as a connective function between affiliate planning and enterprise-wide strategy, ensuring that affiliates have access to relevant national expertise and information about national priorities while preserving affiliate autonomy in setting their strategic direction.