National Advisor, Common Ground USA

Team Summary

Common Ground USA (CG-USA) fosters collaboration across differences to address America’s biggest challenges and build a society where everyone can belong and thrive. As part of Search for Common Ground, with 40 years of global conflict resolution experience, CG-USA transforms conflict into cooperation with programming focused in the United States. At CG-USA, we believe that most Americans want to overcome the divisions we face in our society. We see disagreement as an opportunity to transform conflict into cooperation on our daily and most pernicious problems. All of our work is rooted in an evidence base where we strengthen the five vital signs of peace: safety, social cohesion, institutional legitimacy, personal agency, and resourcing peace.

We are a dynamic, motivated, and diverse team committed to working across divides to generate locally-rooted, responsive, and sustainable solutions to the nation's most challenging issues. Our team is based across the US and represents our “Dignity for All” approach from the inside out. The National Advisor would report to CG-USA’s Executive Director, work closely with other senior members of the CG-USA team, and engage regularly with the entire CG-USA team and scope of programming. 

Position Summary 

The National Advisor will support and grow CG-USA’s outreach and influence to national partners to build a stronger, more unified America. They will grow our network of partners and build spaces for collaboration, bringing together those with differing – and sometimes conflicting – views to build a better future. They will work to broaden the ideological and sectoral diversity of stakeholders engaged in building social cohesion and democratic resilience, including outreach to business associations, faith organizations, veteran associations, rural communities, and advocacy organizations, among others. The National Advisor will also support the Executive Director in outreach, engagement, and advising of federal- and state-level elected and political leadership across political affiliations. The National Advisor will contribute to external representation, context analysis, the formulation of overall strategy, and team leadership, alongside the Executive Director, the Director for Programs and the Director for Strategy and Community.     

The ideal candidate has a background in bi-partisan cooperation, advocacy, coalition-building, democracy issues (political reform, elections, good-governance, etc), peacebuilding, or other related field, as well as strong analytical skills. They should have demonstrable political savvy and experience leading outreach to political leaders across the aisle, as well as different sectors of civil society within the US. They should enjoy working with a diverse team and share CG-USA’s mission of working across differences to solve our shared problems. 

• Builds new areas of national stakeholder engagement, including but not limited to political leaders across the political spectrum, national and multi-state civil society organizations, and other leaders in the business, non-profit, education, advocacy, rural, veteran, and faith sectors. 
• Grows opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between diverse national groups and leaders, including across ideology and sectors. 
• Executes national events and other special projects.
• Represents CG-USA at field-level convenings and other spaces.

• Leads in the creation and management of diverse CG-USA Advisory Board.
• Supports Executive Director with outreach to executive and legislative policy makers.
• Fosters political analysis, integrating team members and partners inputs. 
• Contributes to risk assessment and mitigation strategies. 

• As part of CG-USA senior management team, contributes to the overall CG-USA strategy and execution of that strategy. 
• Supports in team management, and leadership for staffing and employee development.
• Provides consultation on overall CG-USA strategy, outreach, donor engagement and special projects.

• External Engagement: Represents CG-USA at national and state events and public engagements. Contributes to communication with government, civil society, media and partner organizations, as well as key donors. 
• Implementation: Supports quality programming, including planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, and stakeholder engagement. In implementation, ensure compliance of staff and partners to donor rules and US/state regulations, including 501(c)3 guidelines.
• Reporting: Ensure project reporting is completed according to established timeline and requirements by contributing to grant reports, as well as regular funder briefings.
• Personnel management: Manages recruitment of key consultants, and as assigned, manages project staff. Ensures personnel training to adhere to CG-USA, Search and donor policies and procedures.
• Compliance: Ensures internal policy and donor compliance, including 501(c)3 limitations; address serious compliance issues when raised; oversee risk management.
• Financial management: Supports quality and timely financial management.
• Values: Infuses organizational values into all work.
• Other duties: Tasks that are broadly in line with the above key contributions as assigned.

• Typically BS/BA with minimum 15 years’ experience.   
• Strong political analysis skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships and coalitions. 
• Deep knowledge and existing connections with national political and civil society leaders. Experience working with conservative leaders and organizations highly desired. 
• Familiarity/expertise in democracy, coalition building, conflict resolution/political violence prevention, and/or related socio-political issues.
• Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with diverse groups and individuals.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Collaborative working style and ability to engage with diverse constituencies.
• Passion for CG-USA’s mission and values, with a commitment to fostering collaboration across differences to solve problems

• Motivates colleagues and direct reports to develop while resolving problems within the context of the organization's proactive and broad vision.
• Builds and maintains collaborative relationships with vendors, organizations, professional associations, partners, funders, and Search’s network of experts to facilitate work intended to provide a service to Search.
• Manages and contributes to both routine activities and initiatives while also making progress on continuous improvement efforts.
• Juggles multiple demands and adapts to new situations with fresh ideas or innovative approaches.
• Contributes to the development and implementation of departmental strategy based on organizational goals and objectives.
• Confirms and socializes standards across functions globally within or in collaboration with Shared Services teams while allowing for thoughtful collaboration in an international context.
• Practices ethical behavior to meet Search’s expectations for conduct, minimizes ambiguity and sets an example for others.
• Builds a framework and sets in motion a plan to overcome challenges by making sense out of complexity and an uncertain future, staying cognizant of the implications of choice for the department, and being decisive while also applying flexibility for further change as needed and with changing work plans to meet environmental factors.
• Sets up procedures and team building to ensure high quality of work (e.g., review meetings).
• Seeks creative solutions within a complex environment while working within an organizational framework of compliance, ethics, best practices, and standards.
• Shares information, advice, and suggestions to help others succeed; provides effective coaching.
• Sought out as an expert to provide advice or solutions in their technical or functional area (s).
• Convenes groups or teams through problem-solving and creative thinking processes, leading to developing and implementing new approaches, systems, structures, and methods in a Shared Services environment.
• Involves team members in thought leadership discussions and decision-making to lead to continued growth and development for the team, department members, and Shared Services colleagues.
• Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills that will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the safeguarding policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Safeguarding Policy.

• Routinely coordinates with colleagues and consultants and resolves problem situations with tact. Has multiple and regular high-level external donor and partner contacts. Is externally-branded and visible.
• Represents, as assigned, selected programs or projects and other organizations, including donors, vendors, and partners.
• Interacts with CG-USA and global Search staff.