Associate Principal, Non Profit Advisory

Position: Associate Principal, Non Profit Advisory

About Sattva

We Partner to deliver social impact at scale

Sattva Consulting is an Indian origin, Global impact consulting firm and since 2009 we have been engaging with communities, businesses and government to deliver societal impact at scale.

We believe that Civil society, Business and Government all have a critical role to play in building an equitable and sustainable world, and we actively partner with all stakeholders to enable impact through our research & advisory services, knowledge platforms and collaborative initiatives.

Our teams are based in India, Singapore, Denmark and UK, but as a global organization our work has spanned 25 countries and 5 continents. For more information, please visit: www.sattva.co.in

About Non Profit Advisory

One of the core areas of focus for Sattva is strengthening nonprofits and social enterprises through a hands-on approach, to help orbit-shifting scale and impact. In the last ten years, Sattva has enabled over 500 organisations to create impact at scale. Within Sattva, the Non-profit advisory business unit aims to enable aspirational organisations to create impact at scale. The vertical provides services across three levels; First, the vertical helps build overall strategic clarity through various offerings, such as organisational strategy, new market entry, and retained advisory. Second, through program enablement offerings, the team assesses program readiness and designs pathways and solutions to pilot and scale programs. Third, via institutional building activities such as Monitoring and Evaluation, Fundraising Strategy, Organisational Design, and Talent Advisory, the vertical strategically builds organisational, financial, and legal structures appropriate to achieve objectives and aligned with the vision.  In practice, the team keeps evolving its support to nonprofits based on the changing needs on the ground and from communities across all sectors.

The Opportunity

The Associate Principal in Nonprofit Advisory plays a crucial role in designing solutions addressing customer needs and driving measurable social impact. You'll collaborate closely with the team, engage stakeholders, and contribute to research-based insights, all aimed at solving problems and achieving project goals. 

Roles & Responsibilities:

1. Advisory solution design and delivery leadership:

   1. Lead the design and delivery of advisory engagements across Non-Profit Advisory’s core offerings: program design and scale up, MEL, strategy development etc.

   2. Support the team in translating ambiguous client problems into clear hypotheses, workplans, analytical frameworks, stakeholder engagement plans and decision-ready outputs.

   3. Bring strong problem-solving, synthesis and consulting judgement to engagements involving multiple stakeholders, complex evidence, limited data and high ambiguity.

   4. Ensure delivery excellence across project plans, client workshops, plans and outputs.

1. Account leadership and client stewardship: Own and grow a portfolio of strategic non-profit accounts, seeking to build institutional strength and impact at scale.

   1. Understand client aspirations, organisational realities, funding context, programme models and leadership priorities to shape relevant advisory support.

   2. Identify opportunities for deeper engagement in line with the aspirations of the non-profits.

   3. Build trusted relationships with founders, CEOs, boards, senior management teams, programme leaders and funder stakeholders.

   4. Serve as the senior day-to-day relationship anchor for select accounts, ensuring client success, strong communication, quality delivery and long-term relationship depth.

1. Contribute to business development and ecosystem engagement

   1. Lead end-to-end relationships with select prospective clients, from identifying and understanding their needs to co-creating, shaping, and converting opportunities into client engagements.

   2. Develop strong problem-led proposals with clear value propositions, methodologies, staffing plans, timelines, budgets and impact outcomes.

1. Maintain strong understanding of the Indian non-profit ecosystem including philanthropy trends, non-profit needs, emerging opportunities and challenges etc.

2. Represent Sattva in curated conversations, roundtables, convenings, workshops and external forums where appropriate.

3. Use ecosystem conversations and internal learning to codify reusable knowledge that strengthens the practice’s offerings and market position.

4. Contribute to the development of new offerings and sharper solution areas for Non-Profit Advisory.

1. Team leadership and capability building

   1. Lead multi-disciplinary teams across consulting engagements, ensuring clarity of roles, strong problem-solving discipline, high-quality outputs and positive team experience.

   2. Coach and mentor team members on problem structuring, client management, synthesis, communication, project management and sector understanding.

   3. Create a culture of rigour, empathy, ownership, collaboration, high learning orientation and resilience in ambiguity, aligned with Sattva’s stated non-negotiables. 

Required Experience:

1. 14–16 years of relevant experience for Associate Principal level, aligned with Sattva’s stated role banding.

2. Experience working with senior leaders in the impact ecosystem especially non-profits and funders.

3. Demonstrated track record experience leading complex consulting/advisory engagements or building partnerships in the impact sector

4. Experience managing and mentoring teams

Skills and Competencies:

1. Consulting and problem-solving

   1. Strong ability to structure ambiguous problems, develop hypotheses, design analytical approaches, synthesise evidence and create clear recommendations.

1. Ability to combine strategic thinking with implementation realism.

2. Strong comfort with qualitative and quantitative evidence, primary and secondary research, stakeholder consultation and field insights.

3. Client and stakeholder management

   1. Ability to engage senior leaders with confidence, humility and credibility.

   2. Strong facilitation skills, including the ability to run workshops, steer difficult conversations and align diverse stakeholders.

   3. Excellent written and verbal communication, including crisp executive-level presentations.

4. Commercial and practice-building orientation

   1. Ability to identify client needs, shape opportunities, write strong proposals and contribute to revenue growth.

   2. Comfort with business targets, pipeline development, account planning and proposal economics.

   3. Ability to build reusable knowledge, frameworks and tools that strengthen the practice.

5. Sector depth

   1. Strong understanding of the non-profit ecosystem and the realities of non profit institutions.

   2. Understanding of the larger impact ecosystem including funding agencies and government.

6. People leadership

   1. Ability to mentor teams, build capability, manage performance, create clarity and support high-quality delivery under pressure.

   2. High empathy, strong feedback orientation and ability to work across diverse backgrounds and working styles.