Creative Director (Volunteer)

About the role

Mentor A Promise is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth (ages 5–18) experiencing housing instability, grounded in the belief that every child is a Promise—full of potential, dignity, and possibility. We deliver consistent, high-quality programming across mentorship, literacy, social-emotional learning, and creative expression in shelters, schools, and community spaces, creating structured environments where students can grow, be seen, and build lasting skills. Through signature experiences like The Imagination Studio, The Kitchen Table, The Sound Lab, and The Story Space, we nurture academic development, emotional well-being, and creative voice, all within a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and accessibility-centered framework. Our work prioritizes dignity-protective storytelling, consent-driven engagement, and deep community partnership, ensuring that how we serve is as intentional as whom we serve. We are not only addressing immediate needs - we are building pathways to confidence, belonging, and long-term opportunity, so every child has the support and foundation to carry their promise forward.

As MAP’s creative work continues to expand, we are building specialized creative teams with dedicated leadership so that each discipline has the direction, expertise, and space necessary to produce exceptional work. Mentor A Promise is seeking multiple Creative Directors—not one Creative Director responsible for every creative discipline. We believe strong creative work requires leaders who understand the craft they are directing. Each Creative Director will be assigned to a specific creative team or discipline and will provide focused creative leadership for that area.

Responsibilities

• Lead Your Creative Discipline: Establish the creative direction and standards for your assigned team; translate organizational and project objectives into compelling creative concepts; develop creative briefs, concepts, references, mood boards, and direction as appropriate; guide projects from concept through final execution; maintain high standards for originality, craftsmanship, consistency, and quality; bring subject-matter expertise and current creative practices to your discipline.
• Build & Develop Your Team: Help recruit talented volunteers within your creative discipline; participate in identifying and evaluating prospective creative team members; onboard and integrate new creatives into the team; understand individual team members’ strengths, interests, and development goals; delegate projects thoughtfully and establish clear expectations; mentor emerging creatives and help them strengthen their portfolios and professional capabilities; build a team culture grounded in creativity, respect, collaboration, reliability, and shared purpose.
• Creative Review & Quality: Lead regular creative reviews; provide clear, thoughtful, and actionable feedback; challenge teams to explore stronger ideas rather than automatically accepting the first solution; ensure projects meet established creative and brand standards; balance creative experimentation with organizational objectives, timelines, and practical constraints.
• Collaboration Across MAP: Collaborate with other Creative Directors on multidisciplinary projects to create a unified creative concept while maintaining ownership of respective disciplines; collaborate with PromiseStudios for illustration, photography, animation, motion graphics, film, video, and creative production; PromiseVoice for communications, editorial direction, and messaging; PromisePages for publishing and literary initiatives; PromisePublic for