Job Title: Institutional Funding Manager
Company: Self Help Africa
Team: Programme Funding
Location: Remote – home based (UK or Ireland) with occasional travel to London/Dublin/country offices.
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week Monday – Friday
Reports to: Interim Head of Programme Funding
Salary: £36,000-39,000 annual salary, depending on experience

Organisation overview:

Self Help Africa is an international NGO dedicated to the vision of Sustainable livelihoods and healthy lives for all in a changing climate. Headquartered in Ireland, with offices in the UK, the US, Brazil, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, the Gambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, Senegal, and Zambia. SHA creates scalable and sustainable solutions to eradicating long-term poverty through knowledge transfer, investment, and market linkages.

SHA is currently implementing a portfolio of approximately 80 projects in 16 countries, funded by a variety of institutional and private donors including the European Union, Irish Aid and USAID.

Job Purpose:

The Institutional Funding Manager will play an important role in SHA’s institutional income generation activities. Working closely with assigned country teams, the post-holder will support pipeline development, lead the development and writing of high-quality bids, donor engagement, and positioning for contract and grant opportunities. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are critical for this role.

French and/or Portuguese language skills are desirable.

The role is open to candidates with the right to work in the UK or Ireland.

You may see similar roles advertised as: Proposal/Bid Writer/Manager, Fundraiser, Resource Mobilisation Lead, Strategic Relationship Manager/ Business Development Manager, Programme Funding Manager.

Key Responsibilities:

Proposal development

• Identify, research and advise on new funding opportunities.
• Coordinate proposal development for assigned countries/donors and cross-organisational teams to respond to funding opportunities.
• Contribute to meeting departmental financial and non-financial (volume and quality of proposals) targets.
• Develop and oversee proposal development timetable; coordinate inputs; write and edit content; provide quality assurance on fit with donor priorities; ensure compliance with internal review and approval procedures; ensure timely submission; and follow up with donors for feedback.
• Facilitate proposal consultation meetings, prepare summary presentations and develop meeting notes.
• Work closely with colleagues in the Programmes Department, who lead project design, to contribute to the assessment, research and design of projects for specific donor funding opportunities.
• Lead tracking of funding opportunities including monitoring funding databases, liaising with donor staff and colleagues on progress of applications or potential funding opportunities.
• Work closely with Programmes Department colleagues to support and/or lead contract negotiation with institutional donors.

Donor Strategy Alignment, Engagement and Relationship Management

• Support donor strategy to maximise relationships and funding from donors through: meeting donors and cultivating contacts; creating and maintaining strategic account plans; liaising with colleagues across the organisation to coordinate donor meetings and briefings; and writing capacity statements/quality statements for specific donors.
• Maintain up-to-date information on donor priorities, strategies, regulations and activities pertaining to SHA’s strategic plan.
• Ensure relevant staff including senior management and Country Directors are briefed on donor activities, through the preparation of briefing notes and maintaining up-to-date information on our management information system.
• Provide advice to Programme Department colleagues on donor policies and priorities, in order to support overall donor strategies.
• Maintain and report on donor relationship and income pipelines on a periodic basis.
• Manage relationships with assigned funders to build effective long-term partnerships.

Programme Funding Team and Miscellaneous

• Work with colleagues within the Programme Funding Team, and across the organisation, to improve the standard of proposal and report writing and donor relationships, and ensure funding opportunities and contracts are managed according to donor requirements.
• Coordinate the timely review of grant agreements to signature
• Add and maintain opportunities, donor records, files and time records in the organisation’s management information system.
• Provide capacity development and training in programme funding and bid writing to colleagues.
• Contribute to Programme Funding Team reporting.
• Represent the organisation in donor funding-related groups and networks.
• Keep up-to-date on relevant areas of the development sector.

Key Relationships:

Internal

• Interim Head of Programme Funding (Line Manager)
• Business Development Manager (Institutional Funding) x 1, Programme Manager x 1, and Trust and Foundations Coordinator (Colleagues)
• Global Programmes Department staff (Colleagues)
• Country Directors and Heads of Programmes (Liaison)
• Global and Country Office Finance & Admin staff (Liaison)

External

• Donor staff
• Partners (NGOs, private sector, academic institutions)

Knowledge, Experience & other Requirements

Essential

• Minimum of three years’ experience in roles which included programme funding.
• Excellent written skills, and the ability to creatively turn complex project and/or organisational information into compelling proposals.
• Evidence of success in developing proposals and securing funding from institutional donors (e.g. USAID, EU, GIZ, UN, FCDO).
• Ability to form good working relationships and to coordinate with colleagues across the organisation and with partners in multiple locations.
• Administrative skills such organising and maintaining records, files, and databases
• Experience of building and maintaining excellent relationships with institutional donors and partners.
• Self-motivated, proactive and driven individual, with experience of managing and prioritising own workload, meeting tight deadlines and working under pressure.
• Strong and creative oral presentation skills and experience.
• Strong numeracy and analytical ability, with ability to understand complex budgets and an eye for detail.
• Ability and willingness to travel when required

Desirable

• Ability to speak/understand French or Portuguese and to write funding proposals in French/Portuguese.
• Experience and/or knowledge of agricultural development.
• Experience in coordinating, review and negotiate grant agreements with donors.