Senior Corporate Fundraising Executive Jobs in Schools

 1. JOB PURPOSE
AKF(UK) Partnerships Managers are part of the Global Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Partnerships team tasked with identifying and cultivating new funding partnerships and strengthening existing ones to support our strategic goals. They engage with European and Asian government, foundation, and corporate donors to mobilise resources for ten multisector profit and not-for-profit agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) operating across Asia and Africa. In addition, Partnership Managers are responsible for a portfolio of select grants implementing across AKDN themes and geographies in close collaboration with field units, global teams, and our partners. 
 

2. REPORTS DIRECTLY TO - Deputy Regional Director, Europe and Asia, Partnerships
 

3. JOB TITLE: Partnerships Manager (Programme Manager)

4. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND CORE TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

4.1 Securing resources

• Coordinate, facilitate, and lead the development, review, and quality assurance of expressions of interest, concept notes and full proposals for funding opportunities;
• Liaise and coordinate with internal stakeholders as well as with donors, partners, and consortia to facilitate project design, align proposal and donor requirements, gather required legal and administrative documentation, and draft sections of proposals as needed;
• Coordinate processes of contracting and negotiation, engaging relevant stakeholders, and ensuring contracts ‘get over the line’ in a timely and efficient way;
• When needed, provide direct hands-on support at field level in design of concept notes, proposals, and budgets and conduct donor or field visits to support discussions with new and existing donors/partners;
• Contribute to management systems, such as the Award Information Management System (AIMS).

4.2 Grant management

• Manage and monitor a portfolio of grants through regular interface and coordination with AKF(UK)’s partnerships team, AKF(UK)’s finance team and relevant AKF/AKDN agencies/field units, acting as a central resource for field units in donor best practice;
• Interface with donors and communicate on a regular basis about the implementation of on-going grants to ensure strong, enduring relationships;
• Ensure strong relationship cultivation throughout the grants cycle, anticipate, and plan for future funding and project extensions;
• Oversight, coordination, review, and quality assurance of donor deliverables (e.g. work plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, staffing plans, budgets, close-out plans, donor troubleshooting);
• Ensure adherence with donor requirements, rules, and regulations, and that grant deliverables are produced on time and to a high standard;
• Coordinate contractual amendments, changes, and project adaptations, engage with donors in a pro-active and diplomatic way, and flag potential changes (e.g. budget revisions, extensions, risks) in advance to ‘trouble shoot’ and ensure smooth project implementation;
• Facilitate grant monitoring efforts including routine coordination meetings, donor steering committees, donor project visits, and donor monitoring missions;
• Undertake coordination and administrative tasks related to grants and support the maintenance and update of grant management tools and tracking systems such as AIMS.

4.3 Donor engagement and positioning

• Support the partnership unit in researching, sourcing relevant information, and performing analysis of market trends on new donors, peer organisations, and funding opportunities to identify potential funding and partnering matches for AKF and AKDN priorities;
• Work with country teams, AKDN agencies, and the Global Programmes Team (GPT) to identify, build, and support strategic partnerships on aligned global and regional initiatives, innovations and themes with likeminded donors and partners;
• Develop positioning materials (e.g. presentations, capability statements, briefs, talking points), collaborating with communications teams, to enable effective donor engagement;
• Engage with new and existing donors and partners to identify solicited and unsolicited funding opportunities;
• Guide teams to make informed, effective decisions on which opportunities to pursue (including ‘Go No-Go’ requests);
• Identify, cultivate, and pre-position with partner organisations to form or join consortia focused funding bids;
• Conduct due diligence on new partners in coordination with finance and partnerships teams.

4.4 Influencing development and communicating practical lessons and results

• Support the influencing of the development sector by convening and participating at events (e.g. conferences, roundtables, policy forums) to share lessons, innovations and knowledge about our programmes that position us as ‘thought leaders’;
• Engage communications teams to identify opportunities and support the development of content (e.g. social media campaigns, videos) that promote AKF and AKDN’s work and position us as ‘partners of choice’ in the sector. Carry out any other duties as assigned by the Deputy Regional Director of Partnerships or Regional Director of Partnerships.

5. QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, BEHAVIOURS, ATTRIBUTES

5.1 Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree essential;
• Postgraduate degree in a relevant field preferrable.

5.2 Skills

• Creativity, critical thinking, and project management;
• Entrepreneurial, pro-active self-starter with maturity and emotional intelligence;
• Ability to problem-solve, work independently and manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment with numerous and competing deadlines;
• Ability to handle complex relationships with colleagues and external stakeholders in a professional manner;
• Excellent writing, speaking and other communications skills, with thoroughness and attention to detail;
• Ability to provide stable, consistent, reliable and courteous communication when dealing with external organisations, senior colleagues and community members;
• Strong financial literacy, including the ability to read and produce detailed budgets and business plans
• Strong IT skills, including Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce;
• French language skills desirable, but not essential;
• Proficiency in one of AKDN’s languages is desirable but not essential (e.g. Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Portuguese, Urdu).

5.3 Knowledge

• Strong proven understanding and knowledge of the UK/European and Asian donor landscape;
• Knowledge of and commitment to international development.

5.4 Experience

• A minimum of 2 years of experience working in international organisations or donor agencies, including field-level implementation or management, and at least 5 total years of professional experience;
• Experience in resource mobilisation and developing relationships, including direct experience with European (EU, Germany, Norway, Sweden, UK) and Asian donors;
• Experience in developing and writing donor proposals and arguments, business cases, concept papers, briefs, executive summaries, as well as coordinating multiple inputs from a variety of sources, and simultaneously managing a variety of relationships;
• Experience developing budgets and business plans;
• Proven success in managing grants in complex organisations with numerous stakeholders.

5.5 Attributes

• Committed to international development, improving the quality of life and promoting pluralism through civil society;
• Demonstrates equity, transparency and integrity with high personal and organisational ethical standards; is fair, honest and trustworthy with respect for confidentiality; inspires and builds trust and respect from others; promotes credibility and professional reputation;
• Respectful of diversity; sensitive toward others in their context, situation and challenges; pluralistic, open and understanding toward other people’s cultures, values, autonomy, and faiths; demonstrates compassion and empathy; is courteous to others with respect for their background, religion, gender and age;
• Committed to acting ethically and upholding safeguarding standards towards all staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries of the organisation.

5.6 Behaviours

• Communicates clearly and concisely, individually and across a broad scope of stakeholders and communities; expresses complex ideas and concepts in simple terms; listens to the views of others; changes communication styles to meet individual and audience needs; encourages dialogue and effective communication by others;
• Builds, maintains and deepens constructive and effective relationships with stakeholders with a specific focus on AKF’s mission; changes approach to achieve desired results if required;
• Has a service focused orientation to others, is flexible and always puts the good of others at the centre of decision making; optimises respect for others and is dedicated to AKF’s purpose and fulfilling the mission;
• Is a supportive team player, collaborates creating a culture of knowledge sharing and team learning to strengthen high business performance. Is proactive in teamwork, has the capacity for continuous learning to facilitate AKF’s mission;
• Inspires self and others to greater performance, professional standards and results; likes to get things done, seeks understanding of goals through role clarity and vision; accepts new challenges and opportunities to enable selfreliance and achievement of full potential; seeks learning, demonstrates a sound mind, and open to change; gives and receives timely balanced feedback;
• Acknowledges creativity, has the desire to expand capacity for new innovations (including technology); adapts established methods for new uses; creates individual, team and organisational learning opportunities; is focused on improving systems and processes; open to change; analyses and synthesizes and challenges conventional thinking; supports the development of communities of practice;
• Enterprising attitude that is quick to search out alternative solutions to needs or problems; demonstrable ability to foster a healthy organisational culture of teamwork and collaboration in problem solving; creates and participates in communities of practice to establish networks of problem solving and organisational learning. 

6. KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Internal Relationships

• Management team
• Staff and volunteers
• Peer partnership managers
• AKDN colleagues
• AKF field unit colleagues
• AKF Head Office colleagues

External Relationships

• Partners
• Donors
• Government bodies
• Beneficiaries
• Relevant UK communities 

Application Details:

• • Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK.
• Must include CV and a supporting statement that outlines why you want the role, why you want to work for AKF(UK) and how your experiences and skills to date make you the most suitable applicant for the role.
• Application link: www.the.akdn/careers/2193194
• Closing date: 02 nd December 2024
• Salary: £40,000 - £45,000 per annum (dependent on skills and experience) + benefits