Oficial Nacional de Grants At Plan International

Role Purpose

The National Grants Officer for Mexico mobilizes people and resources to deliver an innovative strategy to increase income from mainly institutional and occasionally corporate donors for Plan International’s new office in Mexico. This position identifies new partnerships and grant opportunities, negotiates contracts and keeps track of donor trends and priorities. In collaboration with the Business Development, Programme and Communications teams of country office Mexico, the National Grants Officer designs high quality proposals and once they are granted, he/she manages the relationship with donors ensuring the highest standards in funds management and donor compliance, strengthening systems and process for effective grants management. The position develops key customer relationships within the Plan International federation and outside (national, regional and internationally). The role has a significant responsibility dealing with multi-team processes, partners and other entities from Plan federation.

Dimensions of the Role

• Co-lead the design and implementation of the grants component of the resource mobilization strategy / business plan of the Venezuela Migration Crisis Regional Program and of Mexico.
• Play a key role in driving donor liaison, gathering intelligence and pre-positioning for upcoming opportunities ensuring that a healthy opportunity pipeline is both generated and maintained.
• Manage the identification of grant opportunities through an ongoing donor mapping exercise and the design of successful project and program proposals, in coordination with program department of PII Mexico, to ensure that PII Mexico meet its funding targets.
• Ensure the quality of the proposal according to donor requirement and coordinates budget development with stakeholders for optimal cost-recovery.
• Manage the relationship with national and international donors always meeting the highest standards of donor compliance.
• Help position the country offices and ROAH within national and international donors and National Offices in Plan federation.
• Represent Plan business interests to develop and maintain productive relationships across donor-specific networks.
• Improve the management of institutional funds and develop training initiatives to increase the capacity of staff to oversee contracts and generate an organisation culture towards fundraising.

Responsibilities

• Maintaining and updating the donor database and all donor data
• Identification of new funding opportunities for PII Mexico according its 5-year strategy, program priorities and funding requirements.
• Identification of characteristics for improving donor acquisition based upon donor data analysis (successful acquisition channels, successful fundraising products, etc.).
• Coordination of project design and formulation processes, including definition of narrative proposal plus detailed budget for submission, with respective potential donors, in close collaboration with other departments and, in case of consortium, with external stakeholders.
• Guaranteeing donor loyalty through donor compliance including coordinating reporting .requirements and processes.
• Monitor, evaluate and analyze key indicators that reflect the overall performance of grants related to the designated programmes/countries.
• Maintaining good working relationships both within Plan International (with other departments and other offices, as with external stakeholders like (potential) project partners or corporate or institutional (potential) donors.

Dimensions of the Role Reporting

• The position will be part of the ROAH Business Development Team, and will at the same time report in dotted line to the leaders of the designated programmes/countries.
• For day-to-day management, technical issues and reporting, the position will directly report to the Country Director PII Mexico.
• The position will not have direct reports

Accountabilities

Proposal Design

• Advise the Country Office on trends and changes that are needed to keep up with the institutional donor market.
• In coordination with the Programme and Communications teams, lead the design of responsive, compliant and high quality technical and financial proposals to a range of institutional donors, ensuring that targets are met and exceeded where possible.
• Manages a calendar to ensure compliance with all donors: proposal submission, reports, international visits, etc.
• Building a portfolio of suitably, mid- and long-term institutional funding (Grants). Accurate analysis of costs for fundraising and return on investment to inform solid decision-making.
• Implement policies and processes in place to ensure appropriate cost recovery, in line with global policies. Work closely with the Finance team in meeting the core standards.
• Define annual targets according to program funding gaps.
• Impulse/motivate a regular dialogue and an effective working relationship with programs and communications teams to develop new “products and projects” that can be marketed to potential donors.
• Identify and manage consultants when required to develop complex donor proposals.
• Number of submitted proposals, number of rejected and number of approved proposals.
• Balanced Grants Portfolio (Fad Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3), according to Business Plan.
• % of cost recovery (apportioned costs) is obtained.

Relationship with donors and donor landscaping

• Produce and regularly update a comprehensive mapping of all donor opportunities (by sector and geography) in country.
• Build and maintain relationships with National Offices within Plan International and targeted institutional donor representatives, fund managers and partners; understand their needs and objectives and present to them Plan’s programs.
• Establish contacts with new potential institutional donor representatives and key partners for joint bidding.
• Analysis of national and international fundraising landscape and opportunities: source new local donor segments. Build relationships with profit and non-profit organizations that have demonstrated interest in social programs.
• Target new growth areas for Plan, including prime positions on consortium bids, non-traditional donors national and internationally.
• Develop and maintain a strong and professional image of Plan among relevant donors and partners and lead on profiling and relationship management, including within the Plan federation.

Donor compliance, grants management and contract negotiation

• Support the Programme Team and Business Development Team of PII Mexico to ensure that all projects meet the donor requirement in quality and time, including reports, monitoring of results and budget performance.
• Develop or strengthen effective systems for identifying and responding to new opportunities in order to secure funding from institutional donors which supports Plan’s strategy and in accordance to Plan policies.
• Manage all policies and procedures related to grant funding, including setting and managing Funding Agreements (FADs) with National Organizations within Plan International Matrix.
• Maintain strong working relationships with National Offices, Regional Office and the Global Hub, and through the team provide appropriate support to implementing partners in relation to donor liaison.
• Work with the Finance and Programme Teams to ensure the effective utilization of grants monitoring systems in terms of projections and forecasting, the monitoring of expenditure, negotiations with grantors for budget modifications and completion of project reports.
• Lead contract negotiation with donors and National Offices ensuring that all standards and targets are financially and legally met.
• Explain to donors any variations regarding budgets or program targets.
• Lead auditing requirements for grants.
• Ensure that all new projects start with a Start Up Workshop, including all implementing partners.

Measuring progress and reporting

• Keep track and measure progress against targets and standardized metrics .
• Track and prepare departmental data to present to the Regional Management team to support management decisions and show progress.
• Develop a knowledge bank of donor requirements and systems by donor.
• Ensure that the regional funding tracker is maintained and updated regularly, generate periodic reports using data from the Funding Tracker.
• Monitor, analyse and consolidate grant information using existing or developed tools, and disseminate where relevant. Produce and regularly update a comprehensive mapping of all donor opportunities.

Capacity building and Team management

• Influences the CMT and all staff to promote a culture of donor relationship and ensure that resource mobilization becomes a top priority for all staff.
• Coach the Programme Team, and especially, Project Coordinators to improve grants management and donor compliance.
• Travel occasionally to program areas in order to ensure proper follow up of all grant requirements or of new opportunities.

Other management responsibilities

• Identify and manage all risks related to grants management and fundraising.
• Lead the grants resource mobilization efforts during humanitarian response situation to ensure that donor opportunities are identified, developed, gained and followed-up.

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Key Relationships

Internal:

• All Plan staff of PII Mexico, CO and PU level, especially those involved in programme design and project implementation.
• Regional Office, National Office, Global Hub and any other offices from Plan federation.
• Regional Head of Business Development and other Business Development Team members.

External:

• Institucional donors.
• Partners.
• Government institutions.

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Essential

• Bachelors degree in relevant field
  • A minimum of 2-4 years of professional experience in grants management (formulation / implementation) and/or development sector.
  • Demonstrated track record in grant acquisition and donor relationships management, including track record of writing winning project proposals and obtaining grant funding for development projects from institutional donors (EU, USAID, CIDA, etc.)
  • Experience of working with children and communities and managing child-related program and projects would be an advantage.
  • Demonstrable knowledge as a result of study, training or practical experience on grants acquisition and donor requirements, interests and priorities.
  • Excellent Spanish and English oral and written communication skills.
  • Advanced negotiating skills, partnership building and proven strategic relationship management skills.
  • Conceptual and analytical skills. Ability to communicate complex ideas and develop simple materials to different audiences.
  • Excellent people skills; team builder.
  • Great presentation and marketing skills.
• Strong project management experience, including organisational skills, attention to detail, planning and monitoring.
• Intermediate level of computer proficiency.

Desirable

• Experience in donor management with EU, ECHO, USAID, OFDA and other important international institutional donors.
• Experience working with the Venezuelan Migration Crises
• Understand the complex environment in which global INGO’s operate.
• Certification in resource mobilisation and/or project management.