One Acre Fund is a nonprofit organization that supplies smallholder farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services to reduce hunger and poverty.
East Africa Business Development Manager/Associate
Responsibilities:
Business Development Manager:
- Build and manage a high-value portfolio of existing donors and potential new prospects in targeted segments as part of the implementation of our bilateral/ multilateral and private non-US giving business development strategy. For example:
- Identify, research, and maintain a robust pipeline of potential prospects
- Develop relationships with new prospective funders in targeted segments to develop successful funding proposals to support the organization, shepherding proposals through all required stages and decision-making processes
- Steward existing donor relationships in the targeted segments to manage the required reporting and continued development of successful proposals
- Over time, grow a team to handle end-to-end donor management, from research to stewardship to proposal writing to reporting and compliance.
- Develop strong fluency in agricultural development, poverty alleviation, and One Acre Fund’s activities and impact in order to support external representation and donor stewardship and build excitement about our work among donor communities
- Represent One Acre Fund at conferences and donor meetings, as needed
- Host our key donors visiting Africa as part of the stewardship process
- Support the business development team with internal coordination and process improvement
- Establish and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders and partners (Policy, Communications, Field, and Finance teams)
- Collaborate with Business Development management and other team members to proactively improve processes, tools, and ways of working
- Keep organized. We are not a boss-employee culture. We would like to hire someone who can manage his or her own work, and will truly own the role.
Business Development Associate:
- Research – This person will serve as the focal point for all Business Development research requests. This will involve receiving, prioritizing and organizing all research requests and following up with strong research outputs, which clearly outline concise, useable information to enable the Business Development unit to secure new funding and fuel our growth as an organization. The majority of these requests will be for meeting preparation and prospecting new funding opportunities.
- Public Funding Opportunity Monitoring – In order to ensure the Public Funding team is staying on top of all new public funding opportunities, this role will involve regular opportunity monitoring and information management. This will involve consistent in-depth web research as well as organizing and managing meeting outcomes and information to prepare the organization for upcoming funding opportunities.
- Donor Field Visits – This position will serve as the key liaison for organizing and managing donor visits to the field. This will involve managing all logistics for these visits and coordinating with the country team(s) to ensure an appropriate timetable is established. Often this will also involve accompanying donors to the field sites and responding to all questions they may have regarding One Acre Fund’s work. To be successful in this role, the individual will have to be a skilled communicator and develop strong fluency in One Acre Fund’s program details. Ideally this person will have previous experience in organizing events including complex logistical details.
Career Growth and Development
One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager and a global support team will commit significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions.
Qualifications
Professional Qualifications and Requirements
We are seeking a professional with 8+ years of work experience and demonstrated passion for a career in international development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Top–performing academic background. Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in a related field, graduate degree strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated senior leadership experiencesat or outside of work.
- Genuine passion for international development.We are seeking someone who is truly passionate about providing opportunity to the hardest-working farmers on the planet.
- Past experience in international development and/or fundraising is a plus: The ideal candidate will have past experience in international fundraising, or project/reporting experience with bilaterals and multilaterals.
- Strong ability to understand business. We would like to hire someone who will truly understand our operations, and be able to communicate about them simply and effectively.
- Past experience in a fast-paced, relationship-driven work environment, such as management consulting, is a plus.
- Professional/technical skills: Advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel; and professional effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational, prioritization skills are necessary.
- Experience with SalesForce is a plus
- People-orientation. We are seeking someone with demonstrated experience in relationship building and excellent communications and presentation skills. This skill is particularly important as the role will be partially externally facing.
- Values fit. We put a high premium on values. We want someone who has a true service orientation and humility – someone that puts our farmers before themselves.
- Humility and personal stability. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.
- Willingness to be based in Nairobi and willingness to travel. This role is based in Nairobi, Kenya and will have up to 20-30% travel, within Africa and other international destinations. Dates of travel are highly variable.
- Language: English fluency required (written and spoken); French is a bonus, Swahili is a bonus
Personal Attributes
The following personal attributes are desired:
- A deep commitment to serving the poor.
- A passion for One Acre Fund’s program
- Comfort and experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and locations.
- High energy level, and a personable, flexible, tenacious, diplomatic, and respectful demeanor.
- Proven ability to serve as a team player and leader able to motivate and inspire staff and colleagues.
- Entrepreneurial spirit.
- A sense of humor.
Travel Requirement
Up to 20-30% domestically and internationally.
Preferred Start Date
As soon as possible.
Compensation
We offer a modest starting salary that affords a high quality of life in our areas of operation. This is a career-track role with performance-based raises and the ability to expand responsibilities over time.
Benefits
Health insurance, immunizations, flights, housing.
Sponsor International Candidates
No
More Information
- Job City Nairobi
