Overview:
Women for Women International works in some of the most dangerous places to be a woman. We serve women survivors of war in conflict and post-conflict areas around the world in 8 countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Eastern Congo, and Northern Nigeria. Our core belief is that stronger women build stronger nations; and with access to knowledge, resources, and a support network, a woman rebuilds her life and improves her community.
Our model works and we have the data to prove it. In our 26-year history, Women for Women International has reached over half a million women. The women we work with across three continents earn just $0.81 a day when we enroll them. At graduation, it’s $2.11, nearly tripled.
Our impact goes beyond income. The number of women who say at least one household member went to sleep hungry in the last four weeks has gone from 18% to 5%. And more women say they speak out against women’s abuse: 26% report having publicly spoken in the last six months against physically abusing women.
When women have the right tools, they realize the power within themselves to transform their lives, their families, their communities, and entire nations.
Purpose:
Women for Women International has the ambition to significantly increase grant funding to support programming that has proven to be transformative for marginalized women survivors of war in fragile and conflict affected countries. The Manager, Global Program Funding Opportunities will be an important member of the 11-person Global Business Development team, supporting on our global business development strategies related to proposal development. The Global Business Development team sits within the Global Programs Unit, which also includes sub-teams focused on program design, monitoring and evaluation, country office support, and grants management. This position will work and coordinate especially closely with WfWI’s country offices and program design team to ensure all proposals include strong content and compelling projects that are feasible and aligned with organizational priorities.
The location for this position is flexible wherever we have an existing Women for Women Office or hub, excluding United States. The possible locations include: United Kingdom, Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan or Kenya. If hired in Kenya, the employment conditions will be met by a third party, Professional Employer Organization.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Proposal Quality Management:
Engagement:
- Under the leadership of the Head of Global Program Funding Opportunities, support the development and adoption of processes and systems that improve proposal development efficiency and coordination and that position the organization for submitting timely quality proposals.
- Support country office teams to improve skills, expertise and our overall standards on proposal and budget development
- Under the leadership of the Head of Global Program Funding Opportunities and Director of Global Business Development, work closely with the Program Design and Development sub-team in streamlining content creation and in resolving disconnects between donor requirements/interests and WfWI capabilities/strategies.
Delivery:
- Lead on After Action Review processes, convening learning meetings with global colleagues to evaluate proposal development processes; donor feedback; and successful/unsuccessful bids.
Proposal Development:
Engagement:
- Liaise with colleagues in the development of coherent budgets, ensuring adherence to grantor criteria in relation to accepted costs, percentages, and format.
- When coordinating a submission, manage technical writer, researchers or consultants where applicable, and anyone else directly involved in the application to produce compelling and competitive proposals.
- Develop and cultivate relationships with technical specialists, subject-matter experts, and professional writers to contribute to technical solution designs, reviews, and analysis of proposals and business development strategy.
- Ensure that relevant internal stakeholders contribute to proposal design and that, when appropriate, relevant staff approve the final proposal.
- Work closely with the Donor Relations and Partnerships sub-team to support the development of a strategic understanding of donors and partners to guide proposal development and design, including by contributing to project design and participating in relevant discussions with internal and external stakeholders.
- Liaise with the Grants Management and Program Planning team to ensure a clear handover of successful proposals to ease internal planning and contract negotiations
Delivery:
- Serve as lead coordinator and lead technical writer on select submissions. This involves working closely with multi-country WfWI teams (program design, finance, monitoring and evaluation, country offices, etc.) and managing all aspects of the proposal development process from start to finish, ensuring that final products are high quality, compelling applications that meet all donor requirements, and that have WfWI buy in and support.
Partnership Development
Engagement:
- In conjunction with the Director of Global Business Development and the Director for Global Philanthropic Partnerships, work across all parts of the organization that are engaging in various forms of partnership to ensure that we understand and can leverage these partners in BD efforts.
- Work closely with country offices, the Donor Relations and Partnership sub-teams and the rest of the Program Funding Opportunities team to articulate gaps in partnerships that could complement and make our proposals more competitive.
Qualifications and Skills:
- Bachelor’s degree required and Master’s degree preferred, in a relevant subject, or the equivalent in experience.
- At least 7 years of experience in fundraising, with strong experience in writing proposals for an international NGO, with a particular focus on UK and European funders
- Experience working in cross-departmental, cross-country contexts.
- Current and strategic understanding of global humanitarian, development and gender funding environment and future trends.
- Knowledge of international development policies and/or programmes, women’s rights and/or women’s experience in countries affected by conflict
- Excellent spoken and written English to include research, writing, and communication skills.
- Strong team player, who can comfortably work across a multi-disciplinary team
- Creative and entrepreneurial, identifies and maximises opportunities
- Calm under pressure, excellent multi-tasker, used to working within tight deadlines
- Commitment to and respect for Women for Women International’s mission and values
- Computer skills including working with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Email.
- Experience with Salesforce preferred.
- Ability to travel as required and have flexible work schedule which may include early mornings, evenings and weekends. May be required to occasionally work beyond normally scheduled hours.
- A passion for global issues, women’s empowerment and human rights.
The duties, responsibilities and activities of this job description may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.
About the Organization
Organizational Values:
Our global core values define how we are to behave as we pursue our mission, our vision, and our strategic objectives:
- Empowerment: We believe every woman is unique and powerful in her own right. Our people areour greatest strength and we will support them to achieve our aims by providing them with the information, rewards and power they need to take the initiative and make decisions to solve problems and improve our delivery and performance. As a learning organization – we encourage our people to take risks and make mistakes, we learn and grow and get better, stronger and
- Integrity: We will never communicate in any way that exploits or demeans the women we exist to serve, we will deliver a program of training that maximizes the impact for the women we serve to bring them the biggest benefits and facilitate the greatest long-term positive change in their we do what we say we are going to do, when we say we’re going to do it. We act as good stewards of the organization’s resources.
- Respect: We believe every woman has the right to be treated with fairness and dignity. we trusteach other implicitly, confident in the knowledge that we are all working towards the same goals. Equally, we hold each other responsible and accountable at all levels of the organization for the outcomes of our actions. We will be bold, clear and kind in our communication with our colleagues across the organization and not allow disrespectful behavior to go unchallenged.
- Resilience: We see every day the strength of women survivors of war and their ability to neverlose hope despite having faced the greatest atrocities and horrors of conflict. They inspire us to stay strong, hopeful, focused and committed to our global purpose. We support each other to do the
How to apply
Application Instructions:
We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis, so please apply at your earliest convenience through our careers page: Careers (womenforwomen.org).
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
* This job description may be modified from time to time at the discretion of WfWI*
