Accelerate your professional growth and team performance with this 6-month advising and strategic clarity program designed exclusively for first-time Marketing Communications Directors in the social sector
You’ve done it — landed your first Director role heading up the marketing and/or communications team for a mission you believe in. But the transition from creative contributor to full-function leader is proving much harder than you anticipated.
All around you are leadership firsts, urgency, and a never-ending line at the marcom order counter.
I've been exactly where you are. Feeling like I was leading on an island. Struggling to balance "getting the work done" with the need for strategy. Learning how to confidently advise executives while battling imposter syndrome. Trying to stay on top of our constantly changing field—even as our sector gets hit from every direction.
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Without an advisor who'd been there, I found myself making a lot of mistakes. Back-burning strategy just to get the work done. Saying “yes” even when my instincts said “that’s never going to work.”
My growth slowed as a result. Fast forward, and so did my career advancement and earning potential. And my team paid the price—burnout, stress, and the risk of being viewed as a cost center vs. vital partners.
Every rising marcom leader needs an advisor in their corner who's been there.​
These challenges don’t have to define your leadership journey.
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I created the Rising Director Program for one reason:
because burnout is NOT the price of leadership.
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I designed this program to help first-time nonprofit marcom leaders find focus, reclaim team capacity, and fuel the performance that really matters.
This program isn't coaching. It's strategic advising.​
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Most leadership programs or accelerators teach you concepts, then send you off to implement them alone or with modest feedback in a group setting. This program works WITH you—and sometimes FOR you—to build the strategic foundation your team needs right now.
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You'll walk away with tangible strategies and action plans you can implement immediately:
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A custom team focus brief defining your team's "primary job," best-fit service model, and a honed-in focus for how you team will spend 80% of its time—ready to share with leadership and operationalize with your team
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A defensible staffing plan that matches real org needs to a flexible bench of FTE and contractor roles and AI integration—ready to present to your boss
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A “work smarter” action plan to mitigate the top operational, systems, and relational bottlenecks crushing your team's capacity
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An easy to use performance dashboard to track the top marcom metrics that matter most to your organization, with guidance on platform integration (like GA4, Sprout Social, Mailchimp)
These aren't templates you fill out yourself. We co-create them together in live 1:1 sessions—I'm in your docs helping you , giving real-time feedback on your drafts, and setting up frameworks tailored to your specific situation.
Here's how it works:
MONTH 1:
We'll name your starting point and co-create your growth Roadmap
In the first 30 days, you'll gain a deeper understanding of your innate leadership strengths, the blind spot likely inhibiting your success right now, and the biggest — and solvable — roadblocks to your team’s performance and capacity right now.
WHAT YOU GET:
Clifton StrengthsFinder leadership assessment and reports
The Core Mindsets and Disciplines essential to every nonprofit marcom leader
Customizable Roadmap workbook with self-guided reflections and exercises to articulate your leadership starting point and growth goals
Your ready-to-share: Innate leadership strengths, leadership blind spot, team vision, team roadblocks, and leadership growth goals
MONTHS 2-6:
One-on-one advising to accelerate your leadership and team’s performance
Over the next 5 months, we work through each stage of the Lead for Influence system—but this isn't self-paced training. It's hands-on strategic advising tailored to your specific challenges.
WHAT YOU GET:
4 hours a month of one-on-one advising with Tiffany Meyer to use however you'd like — such as a standing weekly call; offline reviews of strategic documents or plans; a virtual work session or brainstorm for a campaign or tough project; etc. Address challenges in real-time as you build your new leadership system.
Weekly group coaching "office hours" with Tiffany Meyer through your program duration. As you move through the Lead for Influence system, bring your questions, workshop your drafts live, and/or learn from your peers in these informal sessions.
Leadership Resource Library with a growing list of self-paced training, and common tools, templates, and materials for marcom team leaders.
We'll move through all 4 stages of the Lead for Influence system, co-creating ready-to-use strategies that accelerate your team's performance and strategic influence.
1. Set Radical Focus
Reclaim ownership over your team’s workload and the unique value you can offer. You'll define where 80% of your team's time should go—work that directly fuels your org's top goals and earns colleague allyship.
WHAT YOU GET: Radical Focus brief articulating your team's "primary job," best-fit team service model, your 80/20 priority focus areas, "right results" KPIs, and focus rollout strategy
2. Shape your bench
Get the right team, in the right roles, doing the right work—in a manner that keeps your team resilient, your capacity optimized, and your talents fully leveraged.
WHAT YOU GET: Custom staffing plan and budget covering FTE seats/roles, AI integration, contractor roles, and "team extension" roles for non-marcom contributors
3. Minimize friction
Address the operational, systems, tech, and relational capacity crushers adding friction to your workflow—so you can retain the focus and capacity you've worked so hard to earn.
WHAT YOU GET: Custom friction mitigation plan with actionable recommendations for workload intake, martech enhancements, and "work smarter" operational improvements
4. Sharpen results
Operationalize your "right work, right results" focus, strengthen your performance-first mindset, and learn to stay nimble as audience needs and pressures shift.
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WHAT YOU GET: Custom performance dashboard tracking your top 2-3 metrics and up to 15 sub-metrics, connected to your platforms (GA4, Sprout Social, Mailchimp, etc.)
When you complete the Rising Director program, everything changes:
For your organization:
Marcom shifts from reactive service provider to strategic growth engine—fueling financial resilience, scaling impact, and activating audiences that drive your mission forward.
For your team:
The chaos of endless requests gives way to predictable, purposeful work. Your team stops scrambling and starts contributing to outcomes that matter—with room to grow and strengths that are fully utilized.
For you:
You move from managing tasks to architecting strategy. From defending your team's value to demonstrating it. From hoping for a seat at the table to earning it—with the confidence, influence, and career momentum that comes with consistently delivering results the C-Suite notices.
This program empowers you to slow down, think beyond the day or week in front of you, and consider your role, workload, and team in a different light.
Director of Marketing + Communications
HEALTHCARE SECTOR
You're a great fit for the Rising Director program if you:
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Are currently leading the marketing and/or communications function at a US-based nonprofit
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Have less than 5 years of experience heading up a marcom function (whether this is your first director role or your second)
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Can commit at least 4 hours per month for 6 consecutive months, including at least one 1-hour video call per month
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Have a strong desire to grow as a leader and strategic advisor within the social sector
Why this is more than executive coaching?
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Executive leadership coaching focuses on broad leadership confidence-building regardless of your function. It's valuable, but it doesn't address the unique challenges of leading a nonprofit marcom team—or give you the concrete strategic deliverables you need to implement immediately.
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The Rising Director program combines leadership development with function-specific strategy. You get both the confidence AND the systems, tools, and deliverables to drive measurable impact.
Why this is more than consulting?
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Consultants hand you a strategy and walk away. You're left to figure out implementation on your own, often without the internal buy-in or capacity to execute. This is why so many strategies fail at the implementation stage.
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This program doesn't just co-create the strategic documents with you—it actively strengthens your influence as a leader. You'll gain the mindsets, disciplines, and tactics to successfully socialize, operationalize, and demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategy you set. The result: strategies that actually work because you have the leadership capacity and organizational support to make them happen.
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This is strategic advising + co-creation built specifically for nonprofit marcom leaders.
The biggest questions I get ...​
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"How do most leaders fund this investment?"
Most clients fund this investment from their marcom operating budget, similar to how they fund any other contractors, agency partner, or consultant.
"Will asking for help make me look bad to my boss?"
The opposite. Leaders who invest in strategic support to strengthen their team's performance (as this engagement will) show both self awareness and initiative—two qualities executives value.
Your boss hired you because they saw your potential. Seeking out expert guidance to accelerate your team's impact doesn't signal weakness—it signals you're serious about delivering results.
"Is this consulting or professional development?"
This is strategic consulting structured as an advising engagement. You're not learning concepts in a classroom—you're co-creating implementation-ready strategic deliverables with an experienced advisor who's been exactly where you are.
Think of it as: part strategic consultant + part executive advisor + proven system = accelerated results for you and your team.
"How do I get my boss on board with this investment?"
Start with a conversation with me. I'll help you understand if the program is the right fit, and if it is, I'll provide you simple slides to make the business case you can present to your supervisor.
Many participants bring their boss into our initial conversation, or schedule a brief follow-up call where I can speak directly to the ROI and how the program addresses your org's specific challenges.
Schedule a complimentary program fit call—no pressure, just exploring if this is right for you.
Ready to explore if this is right for you?
To ensure every participant has an exceptional experience, I reserve just 3 spots per quarter for new Rising Director leaders.
Your first step: Schedule a complimentary program fit call to determine together if this is the right fit for where you are now.
We'll cover how the program works, what to expect, the investment, and answer any questions you have. If organizational buy-in is needed, I'll help you build a compelling business case to present to your supervisor—showing how this investment addresses your specific challenges and delivers measurable ROI.
If we both agree it's a strong fit, I'll send you a simple proposal you can move forward with (or share with leadership for approval).