Chief Executive Officer, Nature & Culture International

Nature & Culture International (NCI) is a highly effective conservation organization working to protect tropical forests and biodiversity in South America. Over the past 30 years, it has conserved over 29 million acres in 211 protected areas across the Andes and Amazon by putting local communities at the center of the work rather than treating them as bystanders.

The organization works primarily in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia, partnering with Indigenous groups, traditional communities, governments, and regional allies to protect land for the long term. Country teams lead conservation work on the ground, with headquarters in Loja, Ecuador, anchoring field operations and offices throughout the region.

It’s an unusually efficient model; NCI’s conservation projects typically cost between $1 and $10 per acre, which makes this one of the highest-impact places a donor can put money. A small U.S. team raises funds and sends nearly all of it to the field, where the actual conservation happens.

The new CEO will be responsible for building the individual and institutional fundraising engine to grow the current $9M annual budget to $18M within 3-5 years, and continue to grow the model into the future.

The CEO is the organization’s chief fundraiser and its lead representative in the United States. This person leads the U.S. team, focuses on cultivating major institutional and individual donors, and builds partnerships that scale conservation work across Latin America. It’s a role for a leader who can tell a compelling story, build lasting donor relationships, and turn field results into sustained giving.

The job, at its core, is to fund the next stage of growth. Conservation is why the organization exists; revenue is what makes it possible. The next CEO will put the expanding revenue to work protecting some of the most biodiverse forests left on the planet. The U.S. branch exists to fund the work, not run it.

• Set organizational vision and strategy with the board and Latin American leadership, keeping conservation impact as the goal and revenue as the tool.

• Stay disciplined about the few priorities that actually matter: think in terms of pipelines, portfolios, and multi-year plans, not scattered initiatives.

• Plan for a shifting philanthropic landscape and have contingencies ready.

• Keep the pulse on trends in U.S. philanthropy and conservation funding, and use them to sharpen strategy.

• Serve as the public face of NCI in the United States and at international forums, engaging major donors, media, and the broader conservation field.

• Build and run a U.S. fundraising plan to meet revenue growth goals (from $9M to $18M in 3-5 years) and align the U.S. team behind it.

• Cultivate and steward major donors giving $50,000+, and build a strong pipeline of principal and legacy gift prospects.

• Personally close six- and seven-figure gifts, manage a portfolio, and work with the board on cultivation.

• Grow unrestricted giving so the organization can direct money where it’s needed most.

• Build lasting pathways for support, including planned giving, corporate partnerships, and project-specific funding, that keep resources flowing to Latin America for generations.

• Translate complex conservation science and community partnership work and make it clear and compelling to donors.

• Lead donor trips to the field so supporters can meet the people and see the places they’re funding.

• Build a development team so strong that every hire multiplies the mission’s reach, and donors stay loyal to the cause long after the person who brought them in has moved on.

• Invest in…