Grants Manager

Starting Date: April 2025

Contract type: Full-time and open-ended

Salary: London: 57’400 GBP; Delhi: INR 3,042,400; Lahore: PKR 6,77,600; Abidjan: 43,200 EUR, all commensurate with relevant skills and experience

Location: London, Delhi, Lahore, Abidjan

Application closing date: 5 February 2025

Background

Better Cotton is the world’s largest cotton sustainability programme. Our mission: to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment. In challenging times, we are meeting the challenge head on. Through our network of field-level partners we have trained over 2.5 million farmers - from the smallest to the largest - in 23 countries in more sustainable farming practices. A quarter of the world’s cotton is now grown under the Better Cotton Standard. We have united the industry’s stakeholders behind our efforts, from ginners and spinners to brand owners, civil society organisations and governments. Everyone who cares about cotton and its sustainable future can now be part of something better.

The Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund (Better Cotton GIF or the Fund) is a global programme designed to support Better Cotton in achieving its goals and reaching cotton farming communities that need the most support. The focus of the Fund is field-level investment. The Fund invests in sustainable farming practices, training and capacity building, data collection and research to benefit farmers, farm workers and the environment.

About this role

As Grants Manager you will work closely with a portfolio of implementation partners that the Better Cotton GIF funds. You will assess applications for funding, review project reports, manage the Fund’s relationship with these organisations and, together with the Programmes team, play a key role in recommending what funding and support should be committed to them. The ideal candidate will have lived in South Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa or visited them extensively. If you have a particular expertise in gender, climate change, soil health, pest control, or smallholder livelihoods, that would be an enormous advantage.

This challenging role offers excellent opportunities for personal and professional development, together with a competitive benefits package.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with Better Cotton GIF team to manage GIF grant-making workflow and calendar, including:

• Coordinating application processes, including managing incoming grant proposals.
• Assessing grant applications to the Better Cotton GIF– analysing the quality and potential impact of proposals and organisational viability; obtaining appropriate advice and references; reaching a judgement or recommendation for submission to the Field Impact and Investment Committee and handling relationships throughout the process until the application is either successful or declined.
• Supporting regular meetings of the Field Impact and Investment Committee which is responsible for approving the investment portfolio.
• Preparing and sending funding agreement letters to grantee partners
• Managing and monitoring grants, through the review of reports and project visits, to ensure their effectiveness and delivery against project design and targets.
• Support programme partners to innovate, introduce new solutions to challenges and deepen the impact of their projects
• Ensure project budgets are developed and spent appropriately and in-line with project plans

• Maintain the GIF grant management database: Ensuring that all grant and grantee information is entered consistently and accurately. Generating reports and dashboards for the programme and finance teams. Regularly proposing ways to better track grants, budgets, and managing the database.
• Collaboratively evaluate, develop, implement new and refresh ways of managing the Fund’s workflows, processes, policies and procedures to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Capturing and analysing information on the delivery of programmes and reporting on progress to the relevant stakeholders.
• Work closely with the Better Cotton country team Programmes teams to support their relationships with GIF funded partners, through coordination around grant management and programme review processes.
• Support the Monitoring and Evaluation team to ensure that MEL processes and frameworks are effectively used with partners, and learnings integrated into programme implementation. Support the delivery of project baseline and endline evaluations.
• Keep abreast with developments in the cotton/environment sectors to inform the Fund’s future grant programmes.

Each Grant Manager also takes responsibility for one of the smaller sub funds and one or more other areas of work according to interest and/or need, for example, livelihoods or gender, or workers

The role is expected to evolve in line with Better Cotton and GIF priorities.

Profile

The selected candidate will have the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

Skills, Knowledge and Experience              

Essential

• Degree in Agronomy, International Development, Anthropology or other relevant subject, or equivalent work experience
• Considerable project/grant management experience gained in the not-for-profit sector
• Experience of rural development, gained through project or grants management of projects in SS Africa or South Asia
• Effective in developing relationships with organisations at all levels – and with the personal credibility, communication and analytical skills to provide advice and support on the challenges they face
• Cross-cultural understanding and perspective and the ability to communicate with, and learn from, a wide range of partners and colleagues
• Resourceful and proactive, with initiative and a problem-solving disposition
• Good understanding of logframes, other project design tools, and project MEL
• Experience reviewing budgets and financial reports
• Proven track record of an organised and methodical approach to work, combining numerical accuracy with attention to detail and an ability to meet deadlines
• Strong IT skills, including word processing, use of spreadsheets, use of databases to process information and electronic communications.
• An ability to work creatively and flexibly in a small team, supporting other colleagues, and with a strong personal commitment to learning and improvement
• Fluency in written and spoken French
• A commitment to the aims of Better Cotton

Desirable

• Expertise in smallholder agriculture
• Experience of providing support to partners on organisational development
• Experience of communicating with donors and reporting on grant use

What we offer

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working – Two to three days/week in the offices central London, Delhi, Lahore or Abidjan
• The opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to one month per year
• Flexible working, with core hours from 10 am to 4 pm local time
• Continuous learning and development
• 25 days paid annual leave, plus 8-9 Bank Holidays and a further 3 discretionary days off over Christmas/year end period.
• Enhanced parental benefits
• A warm, positive working environment where everyone is valued
• The opportunity to make your mark and make a difference.

Working arrangements

The position is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based in the London, Lahore, Delhi, or Abidjan offices. Better Cotton offers flexible working, with core hours being 10 am – 4 pm and the option to work from home one day per week.

The position will require some travel to countries funded by the GIF (approx 20 days/year). These currently comprise: India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Mozambique and Mali (possibly Côte D’Ivoire).

Applications

Interested applicants with the required attributes are asked to send a detailed CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief cover letter (1-page maximum) by or before 05.02.2025 via this link.

In your cover letter, please include an explanation of why your experience is specifically relevant to this role at Better Cotton. We want to see your personal style – what makes you tick and why you think your next opportunity is here with us.

About Better Cotton

Better Cotton is a global not-for-profit organisation supporting the production of more equitable and sustainable cotton at farm level. We exist to catalyse the cotton farming community with partners, governments and others to continuously drive positive impact by setting standards and facilitating the supply and demand of more sustainable cotton from farm to brand. In just 15 years we have aligned more than a fifth of the world’s cotton with our standard and helped farmers and farming communities thrive. Join us in building a better, more sustainable future for cotton worldwide.

About our Values

The post holder will be expected to operate in line with our workplace values which are:  

• Trustworthy (including honest, transparent, credible)​ 
• As having Integrity (including responsible, authentic)​ 
• Positive (including problem-solving, pragmatic)​ 
• Engaging (including adaptable, inclusive, holistic)​ 
• Daring (including courageous, innovative, game-changing) ​ 

Being you @ Better Cotton

Better Cotton is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to good practice and transparency in the management of natural, human, and financial resources.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to any attitudes or behaviours that put children or adults at risk of harm. Safeguarding incidents are acts of serious misconduct and are grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal and referral to relevant authorities for criminal prosecution. Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.