Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning
Office: National Offices
Location: New York, New York, United States
This is a hybrid role requiring two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month in-office.
About the role
The ACLU seeks applicants for the full-time position of Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning in the Affiliate Support and Nationwide Initiatives (ASNI) Department. The ASNI Department builds state capacity and strengthens connections between the ACLU and its network of 54 state affiliates and 1,500 staff. The department leads efforts to share knowledge, talent, and skills across the organization, building the next generation of civil rights leaders and positioning the organization for future challenges.
The Senior Advisor, Affiliate Strategic Planning is a senior role responsible for strengthening the quality, rigor, and impact of strategic planning across the ACLU’s nationwide enterprise. The position ensures affiliates have the frameworks, tools, and guidance needed to define priorities and translate them into executable strategies that build durable institutional capacity and advance the ACLU’s mission. 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 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 affiliates have access to national expertise while preserving affiliate autonomy. The role helps surface patterns, opportunities, and risks across the affiliate network to inform stronger coordination and learning.
Responsibilities
- Affiliate Strategic Planning Support
- Provide direct advising and facilitation to affiliates undertaking strategic planning processes, using a unified but flexible methodology grounded in organizational diagnostics, inclusive planning, equity considerations, and long-term sustainability.
- Promote integration of organizational capacity, governance, staffing, culture-building, program and campaign planning, power building, and financial sustainability goals in the planning process.
- Help affiliates translate strategic priorities into operational plans, milestones, and accountability structures.
- Support affiliates in establishing monitoring practices to track progress and adjust strategy as conditions evolve.
- Track strategic plan implementation progress and support course correction.
- Support executive directors in structuring board engagement in strategic planning processes, strengthening governance alignment around long-term priorities.
- Use strategic planning as a preventive leadership and governance tool to surface risks early and strengthen long-term resilience.
- Operate as a trusted advisor to affiliate leadership, maintaining strict confidentiality and discretion regarding sensitive organizational information.
- Strategic Planning Systems and Portfolio Management
- Develop tools, resources, and systems to enable effective strategic planning across the nationwide enterprise.
- Oversee and resource a vetted pool of consultants supporting affiliate planning processes, ensuring quality and methodological consistency.
- Develop tools and learning resources, including case studies and peer exchanges, to help affiliates address common planning challenges.
- Advise departmental leaders managing affiliate grant portfolios to strengthen the impact of strategic investments.
- Develop and apply criteria to prioritize affiliate strategic planning engagements based on organizational need, timing, and potential impact.
- Provide lighter-touch advising or referrals when full planning support is not feasible.
- Affiliate–National Strategic Alignment and Coordination
- Ensure national priorities and opportunities are communicated to affiliates in coordination with relevant national teams.
- Translate patterns from affiliate strategic plans into insights for departmental and national strategy discussions.
- Identify recurring structural challenges or emerging opportunities across affiliates and elevate them to department leadership.
- Support meaningful national expert input in affiliate planning processes while preserving flexibility.
- Synthesize affiliate strategic plans and capacity assessments into a network-wide analysis, identifying shared themes, trends, risks, and opportunities.
- Design and steward structured pathways for affiliate input into national strategic planning efforts.
- Serve as a connective function between affiliate strategic planning and national strategy development.
- Cross-Department Coordination and Leadership
- Work closely with department teams to ensure coordinated and coherent affiliate-facing support.
- Contribute to departmental strategy, frameworks, and continuous improvement based on emerging trends across the affiliate network.
- Partner with department teams to integrate best-practice strategic planning approaches.
- Contribute to the design and production of the annual affiliate Overview Survey.
Requirements
- At least 10 years of experience in strategic planning, organizational development, or a closely related field.
- Demonstrated commitment to the mission of the ACLU.
- Demonstrated 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.
- Exceptional facilitation, analytical, and written communication skills.
- Deep commitment to equity and inclusion organizational practices.
Preferred Qualifications
- Familiarity with labor relations, unionized workplaces, or rapid organizational growth environments.
- Experience partnering with legal, advocacy, communications, and political programs.
- Prior work with affiliates, chapters, or state-based organizations.
Skills
- Strategic and systems thinking
- Organizational diagnostics and planning
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Relationship management and trust-building
- Facilitation and influence
- Judgment in complex, high-stakes environments
- Ability to balance standardization with local context and autonomy
Pay
The annual salary for this position is $167,568.00 (Level E), reflecting the salary for 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 the pay structure, visit: ACLU Geographic Pay Structure.
Benefits
- Generous paid time-off policy
- Comprehensive healthcare benefits (medical, dental, and vision coverage)
- Parental leave, gender-affirming care, and fertility treatment
- 401k plan with employer match
- Annual professional development funds
- Internal professional development programs and workshops