Senior Programme Manager – Survivor-led Activism Fund At Global Fund for Children

Join us in our mission to power the potential of young people

Global Fund for Children (GFC) works to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. To that end, we partner with innovative, locally led organisations, helping them deepen their impact and build their capacity for social change. By pairing flexible funding with targeted capacity development services, we help our partners grow stronger and more responsive to challenges on the ground. Since 1997, we have invested more than $44 million in over 700 organisations. Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas: education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and freedom from violence and exploitation. You will join a multinational team of caring and committed individuals who believe in investing in bold ideas to help grassroots organisations deepen their impact and advocate for children’s rights. We value courage, excellence, learning, partnership, and inclusion, as well as kindness and passion. Our partners’ visions for change inspire all we do. Feedback and learning inspire us to do better, and we strive to be youth-centered.

The Role
We are looking for a Senior Programme Manager to join our growing Europe and Eurasia team and our Global Programs team to head up a new survivor-led, advocacy focused fund aimed at preventing child sexual abuse in Europe. This is an exciting new role for GFC and we are looking for an experienced manager with a commitment to trauma informed practice and resourcing and influencing survivor-led advocacy to prevent child sexual violence and abuse.

The Survivor-led Activism Fund – Ending Child Sexual Abuse (name TBC!) is a brand new Fund and we are looking for a participatory manager who is excited by the opportunity to build entirely new ways of working that challenge traditional models of funding and facilitate survivor leadership within Europe. The Fund is a funder partnership between the Oak Foundation and GFC.

Gender equity and participatory approaches underpin our current ways of working across the region and we are committed to putting learning from the Phoenix Way into practice through exploring contextualised anti-racist grantmaking practices in our regional work.

What will you be doing?
This exciting new role will manage the set up and implementation of a brand-new Fund across Europe. The fund will be shaped by a survivor-led steering group and will be designed and delivered in accordance with participatory grantmaking and governance structures. While the details of the Fund will be shaped through these participatory structures, key responsibilities of the role will include:

• Setting up and managing the Fund grants programmes within our regional portfolio, Project management of our grants programmes includes:
  • Setting up new governance structures and models, prioritising survivor leadership, safeguarding and trauma informed approaches
  • Supporting delivery of participatory grantmaking and programmatic design
  • Building a team culture that prioritises strong and supportive relationships with grantee partners individually and collectively though convening and network building
  • Leading the development and delivery of wellbeing and capacity development support around survivor led advocacy to grantees
• Supporting proactive risk management and mitigation
• Managing large budget
• Managing personal partner portfolio
• Line managing a hybrid team across multiple time zones including:
  • Providing coaching and regular feedback to direct reports with a focus on goal setting and professional development
  • Contributing to the development of a strong values-based team culture across different countries, areas and streams of work
  • Create and/or facilitate space for regular training, learning, team building and development opportunities for team members
• Providing specialised technical expertise in childhood sexual violence and abuse
• Embedding and implementing good safeguarding practice within the Fund with the Senior Regional Director
• Working with key stakeholders including funders, peers and other survivor-led movements and organisations

About you
Our ideal Senior Programme Manager will be a values-driven, experienced feminist leader with a strong commitment to trauma informed practice and participatory community-led approaches with experience of building new and innovative ways of working to life. As the leader of a new team, you will enjoy recruiting, working with, coaching and developing a new team to design, develop and deliver innovative and iterative approaches to grantmaking and grantee partner support. You will have a deep understanding of childhood sexual abuse and a belief in the importance of survivor-led change as well as strong project management skills and the ability to communicate well with different audiences. You will be excited by the opportunity to build something new and innovative and will be comfortable working with uncertainty and an iterative approach. You will have significant experience in building strong relationships with donors, peers and other key stakeholders within the region. You will be based in Europe and will have strong English language skills as well as speaking at least one additional regional language.

Essential experience and skills

• Strong understanding of childhood sexual abuse, with a strong focus on prevention and advocacy;
• Strong team management experience with a focus on building and supporting high performing teams while prioritising wellbeing;
• Experience in designing and delivering participatory, community-led approaches;
• Experience of working directly with survivors of violence, preferably survivors of sexual violence and abuse;
• Experience in leading trauma informed work;
• Demonstrable management experience within the non-profit, policy or funding sectors in Europe;
• Experience managing large budgets;
• Experience building and nurturing relationships with key stakeholders at all levels;
• Experience managing safeguarding incidents and building strong safeguarding cultures;
• Ability to manage multiple strands of work to a high standard, balancing competing priorities and fast-paced project implementation;
• Demonstrable commitment to practical DEIA and experience of embedding this within your work;
• Willingness to travel regularly within the region, including regular overnight stays;
• Strong commitment to GFC’s mission, values and vision;
• Ability to speak at least one regional language in addition to English.

Desirable experience and skills

• Understanding of trauma-informed ways of working;
• Experience of grantmaking;
• Experience of programme monitoring, learning and/or evaluation.

What we offer you

Our team dreams big.

We work together to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong and valued.

GFC fosters a caring work environment that promotes collaboration, respect, and professional development. We set standards of excellence and quality in our work, firmly believing that children and youth deserve the best we can offer.

We believe that every person has equal rights, and we affirm the diversity that enriches our globalized world. In line with these core values, it is our policy to actively seek diverse candidates from a variety of backgrounds who are committed to Global Fund for Children’s mission.

Our values shape our vision, guide our daily decision making, and signal to the world what to expect when you encounter Global Fund for Children. We hold ourselves to these values to best serve our local partners and the children and youth they support. We attract talented people from all over the world because we believe deeply in living our values.

Salary – UK based salary range is £53,000 to £62,000; other European local salaries will be benchmarked and compensated according to their location, available benefits, and applicant experience.

Weekly hours – 35 hours per week.

Holidays – 30 days annual leave and 8 public holidays. The basic annual leave allowance increases to 35 days after 4 years continuous employment.

Flexible Working Location – GFC is open to applications from candidates across the Europe that are willing to travel regularly across the region, including visiting the London office, supporting in person decision making and grantee partner visits. The GFC E&E team currently has team members based in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Poland and utilises a flexible, remote model with regular travel to our office for those living outside London. We particularly welcome applicants from outside the UK, and in countries where we have partners, to apply.

Learning – GFC encourages professional development as a part of our culture and values. GFC provides regular opportunities for training, collaboration, and mentorship. Employees may access professional development funds to support continued learning.

Benefits – We strive to build a culture that embraces care and wellbeing. Our global employee benefits include:

• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans
• Generous paid time off (annual leave, enhanced sickness leave, wellbeing days, sabbatical leave, family friendly leave)
• Flexible work arrangements – remote/hybrid/compressed work schedules
• Pension plan contributions
• Employee Assistance Services
• Team Building and Social Committees

*Other benefits may apply, depending on the location of the employee