Director, Advisor Relations
About this role
About Communities Foundation of Texas
The mission of Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) is to improve the lives of all people in our community by investing in their health, wealth, living, and learning. CFT works to accomplish this by growing community giving, expanding community impact, and advancing community equity. With a vision of building thriving communities for all, CFT works locally and across the state with many individuals, families, companies, foundations, and nonprofits through a variety of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives. CFT professionally manages more than 1,400 charitable funds and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.
CFT is committed to serving and understanding donor needs, expertly handling complex gifts, wisely managing charitable funds, and leveraging its community knowledge to increase charitable impact, in addition to powering several initiatives including the W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT, the Center for Business Impact, Educate Texas at CFT, Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy at CFT, GiveWisely, and CFT’s North Texas Giving Day. CFT’s North Texas Giving Day raised more than $78 million in 2025 to help over 3,500 North Texas nonprofits, and has raised more than $712 million since its inception in 2009. Learn more at CFTexas.org.
The Role
The Director of Advisor Relations is a senior leader responsible for driving asset growth at Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) by developing, executing, and scaling a sophisticated strategy to engage professional advisors as a primary source of referrals. Professional advisors—attorneys, CPAs, wealth advisors, and insurance professionals—represent one of CFT’s most impactful channels for new funds and assets, generating a significant portion of new fund activity and dollars. This position reports to the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and will serve as a member of the General Counsel and Planned Giving team and the Relationships team.
This role will lead the expansion of CFT’s advisor network, deepen relationships with high-value advisors, and position CFT as the trusted philanthropic partner for their clients. The Director will also build systems, programs, and team capabilities that translate advisor engagement into measurable referral activity and long-term asset growth.
What you’ll do
Advisor Strategy & Asset Growth
- Develop and lead an advisor relations strategy aligned with CFT’s asset growth goals.
- Define advisor segmentation, targeting, and engagement models in partnership with senior leadership.
- Identify, prioritize, and activate high-potential advisors across the DFW market, including attorneys, CPAs, wealth managers, and family offices.
- Convert advisor engagement into measurable outcomes, including referrals, new funds, planned gifts, complex assets, and assets under management.
Relationship Development & Cultivation
- Serve as the lead, with General Counsel, for the cultivation, membership, and stewardship of
the Advisory Council, including individual and group meetings and events. - Manage a portfolio of high-impact professional advisors and strategic prospects.
- Build consultative relationships that position CFT as a trusted philanthropic partner to advisors and their clients.
- Execute targeted engagement through meetings, office presentations, events, and ongoing touchpoints.
- Train, support, and coach other Relationship Managers in advisor cultivation plans.
Referral Generation & Pipeline Development
- Design and scale a referral pipeline that produces consistent advisor-originated opportunities.
- Partner with Donor Relations and Donor Services teams to ensure seamless qualification, handoff, and conversion of referred prospects.
- Establish expectations, training, and accountability practices that keep advisor referrals visible, tracked, and advancing.
Programs, Events & Thought Leadership
- Lead advisor-facing programming, including seminars, roundtables, lunch-and-learns, advisory council engagement, and continuing education opportunities.
- Position CFT as a thought leader in charitable planning, donor-advised funds, and complex gifting strategies.
- Partner with Marketing/Communications to develop targeted advisor content, tools, and messaging.
What Success looks like:
- Significant growth in advisor-sourced assets, new funds, planned gifts, and complex gifts
- A larger, more active network of high-value professional advisors
- Increased volume, quality, and conversion of advisor referrals
- Strong engagement and pipeline metrics across advisor segments
- Clear internal alignment, accountability, and execution of CFT’s advisor strategy
- Strong cross-functional partnerships that enable consistent, coordinated advisor engagement through proactive communication, shared accountability, and a one-CFT approach.
Experience you bring:
- 10+ years of experience in fundraising, business development, wealth management, or professional advisor engagement.
- Demonstrated success cultivating relationships with professional advisors and high-net-worth clients.
- Strong understanding of charitable giving vehicles, including donor-advised funds, planned giving, and complex gifts.
- Proven ability to translate relationship-building into measurable revenue or asset growth.
- Experience leading strategy, building programs, and managing cross-functional initiatives.
- Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills.
- Ability to Effectively model and demonstrate CFT’s core competencies which include Collaboration, Impact and Problem Solving, Integrity and Accountability, Learning, and Internal and External Service.
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (JD, MBA, CFP, CAP®) preferred.
Disclaimer: The above sections contain representative examples of job duties that might be performed by employees assigned to this classification. CFT is a dynamic organization, and the environment can be fluid. Roles and responsibilities may be altered to accommodate changing conditions and objectives as well as to tap into the skills and experience of its employees. Accordingly, employees may be asked to perform duties that are outside the specific work that is listed. This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and/or skills required of all employees within this class.
Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position
Company at a glance
Communities Foundation of Texas has been a partner with donors for raising the quality of life in our community for more than 60 years. CFT provides effective ways to make meaningful charitable contributions while realizing significant tax advantages. CFT handles the investment of the gift, listens to the donor's priorities and manages charitable grants to worthwhile causes. The value of a gift can be granted out completely in a short period of time or it can be nurtured to provide a long legacy of charitable support.
The foundation's experience in the nonprofit community and with donors results in a unique relationship with powerful benefits. A community foundation, as the name implies, is a public charity created as a vehicle for charitable giving. The defining characteristic of a community foundation is that it represents the donors' charitable interests and adds value through its wealth of community knowledge, along with the leadership of its board of trustees and the services of a professional staff.
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