PURPOSE OF POSITION:
This position is a critical and key position of the National Office Team to lead the development and roll out of the National Office Resource Development Strategy in alignment with Our Promise, the 4.3 GAM and National Office strategies.
As such, the core mandate of this position includes:
- To lead and manage the National Office Resource Development Unit to drive growth and diversification of grant income (bilateral, multilateral, major foundations and corporations, GIK non-food items) in accordance to the National Office Resource Development Strategy.
- To position WV[Name of National Office] and ensure productive engagement and retention of grant donors (public and private) through successful grants implementation, effective communication of the impact of grants and strong relationships and alliances with partners, institutions, organizations and donors representatives.
- To establish and maintain functional relationships, capacity and collaboration among national, regional, support office and global center teams to effectively grow the national office portfolio, ensure a healthy pipeline and win rate to meet programming needs and set targets.
- To build de capacity of WV[Name of National Office] capacity in grant acquisition and management in coordination with the regional RDU director, and in accordance with the global Fragile Context Initiative and GAM strategic priorities for the growth and management on grants in fragile contexts. The position holder is also responsible to develop a national successor who will be able to take up NO GAM director role.
The role reports to the National Director or Operations Director, with matrix reporting to the Regional Resource Development (RDU) Director.
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
Strategy and Leadership:
- In coordination with the National Office (NO) strategy and technical teams, National Director (ND), and the Regional Resource Development Unit lead the development and/or revision of the NO grants acquisition and management strategy/
- Business Plan (for both public and private) in alignment with NO strategy and targets.
- In accordance with Global Fragile Context Strategy, GAM processes for fragile context and the NO Business Planning Cycle, assist the ND and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) in setting annual grant income projections to be used in the NDs Performance Agreements.
- Provide day to day leadership and management to the National Office Resource Development to ensure timely and efficient support for prepositioning, proposal development and effective issue resolution in grant performance across NO/SO as needed.
Donor Identification, Engagement and Prepositioning:
- Track the donor competitive landscape (Research, analyze, develop, track relationships with new and current donors) to organize prepositioning meetings with donors and key partners.
- Actively engage and participate in strategic in country donor meetings with foundations, bilateral and multilateral institutions etc
- Working with NO leadership, identify key relationships to strengthen national office positioning and elevate WV’s profile with government, multilateral and private sector donors.
- Ensure that the national office RDU team work in collaboration with Support Offices (SOs’) grant teams and regional RDU, to actively maintain strong donor relationships at global, regional and country level, developing engagement strategies for each donor or a group of donors.
- In coordination with National Office Communications Director ensure the implementation of the global impact framework, and support the development of capacity statements, marketing and communication materials using the technical branding approach for donor engagement and prepositioning.
- Facilitate relationships and build credibility with donors, using previous success and documented best practices in grant management.
- Maintain an up-to-date record of the requirements of current potential donors and be proactive in the lookout for local, regional, and global opportunities.
Resource Development:
- Set up a GAM team and structure and ensure that competent staff are recruited by NO GAM teams. Depending on size of grant, profile and donor requirement, work with P&C and relevant SOs to hire high performing staff (i.e. chief of party, etc).
- Establish an efficient grant opportunity tracking system for tracking grant opportunities and manage opportunity pipeline (i.e. country level donors mapping, strategic direction and areas of alignment) maintaining an overview of country level grant funding opportunities and donor trends.
- Cultivate SO relationships, to ensure effective coordination as opportunities emerge for both public and private.
- In coordination with SOs and cross functional teams, develop high quality of concept notes and proposals leading to successful funding opportunities.
- Support the NOs in the development of consortia whenever necessary in preparation for upcoming opportunities.
- Ensure the appropriate use of the Grants Risk Assessment Form to facilitate the Go/No Go Decision.
- Provide strategic direction to NO to pursue non-traditional funding sources, identifying emerging or untapped high potential donors and new emerging models.
Grant Management and Compliance:
- In coordination with Finance, Procurement, and Administration teams, ensure all aspect of grant compliance and management (e.g. reporting, procurement, visibility, transfer of assets, audit, etc) are understood and applied including sub-grantees.
- Lead the implementation of the Grant Health Tracker for grant projects program quality.
- Director(s) to ensure up-to-date NO grant portfolio on grants financial and risk monitoring data.
- Mobilize cross-NO functional support to NOs for GAM performance (finance, operations, P&C, strategy, and Quality Assurance).
- Upon request, liaise with SOs and Regional Finance and Audit managers to ensure that grants implementation issues have been resolved.
- Ensure significant grant audit / implementation issues are brought to the attention of the NO SLT.
- In conjunction with finance ensure compliance in key grant areas (e.g. eligibility, CAL, match, grant decision making powers, etc). Flag critical policy or systems issues needing resolution by GC.
- Prepare monthly and quarterly grants performance reports for leadership using GAM and FC standardized metrics and protocols.
Capacity Building:
- Ensure all NO staff involved in grants, including the position holder have completed and are Proposal pro certified.
- Lead, manage and provide capacity building support to employees in the NO team, & seconded staff by ensuring clear goals and accountabilities are established and achieved.
- Ensure individuals’ performance and development needs are met, and employees are high performing and engaged.
- Identify capacity gaps at NOs in grants acquisition and management and other factors leading to poor win rates and grants implementation and work with SOs and the RGM to address them.
- Lead with the SOs and regional RDU, the roll out of the partnership grants acquisition training software (i.e. Proposal Pro) and the use of Horizon for opportunity tracking.
- Develop a strong successor to be able to take up increasing grant management responsibility.
Representation at various fora:
- To ensure appropriate representation of the NO at strategic fora that could lead to resource acquisition and enhanced programming collaboration.
- Represent the NO in the grants community fora (internal and external to WV).
- Participate in WV internal grant communities – GAM CoP, Fragile Context CoP, GAM Hubs and Global Grants Compliance Unit.
Others:
- Carry out additional responsibilities as assigned by the ND/Ops Director.
- Attend and participate in devotional meetings.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:
- Bachelor and/or Master’s Degree in International Development, International Relations, Rural Development, Social Science or any related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in grant acquisition and/or grant management, especially in fragile countries (preferred).
- Experienced networker with strong skills in donor relations, negotiations and partnering with up to date knowledge of the donor landscape and trends in the humanitarian sector.
- Excellent knowledge and experience of project management with government and multilateral agencies grant funded projects and experience of grant compliance procedures for major bilateral and multilateral donors.
- Demonstrated track record in proposal development, funding acquisitions and grant management for major institutional donors (bilateral and/or multilateral).
- Proven experience and skills in proposal writing.
- Strong inter-personal skills, and proven team-player.
- Able to solve complex problems and to exercise independent judgment.
- Able to work in a cross-cultural environment with a multi-national staff.
- Must be a committed Christian, able to stand above denominational diversities.
- Strong influencing and networking skills; consortia/network development experience.
- Experience in acquiring funding from private donors (foundations and corporations).
- Ability to provide support and training to staff and partners and to “translate” donor language related to guidelines and different requirements to ensure that both concept notes/proposals and project implementation are compliant with donor requirements.
- Experience with public-private partnerships.
- Experience in working in fragile context countries and humanitarian assistance (preferred).
- If candidate is a WV staff, completed Proposal pro certification. G2G certified training is a plus.
Preferred Skills, Knowledge and Experience:
- Knowledge of workings with major donors, such as USAID/OFDA/DoL, UN, AusAID, EC/ECHO/DIPECHO, UN agencies, WFP, ADB/WB. Global Fund.
- Work experience in fragile context and complex environments preferred.
Work Environment/Travel:
- Work environment: Office-based with frequent travel within National office and support offices.
Travel: minimum of 30% International travel is required.
More Information
- Job City Sierra Leone
