Grants Acquisition and Management Director
Purpose of the Position
- Coordinate/Facilitate proposal development and grants acquisition by building the profile, pre-positioning the Malawi National Office including strengthening National Office (NO) proposal grants acquisition capacity.
- Lead the Malawi National Office in developing and rolling out a Grants Acquisition and Management (GAM) strategy.
- To drive growth in non-sponsorship income in alignment with regional and NO strategy.
- To engage and retain government, mullti-lateral and private sector donors through successful grants implementation and strong donor relations with the aim of maximizing and diversifying the funding base.
Major Responsibilities
Leadership
- Provide day to day leadership in management of the GAM function.
- Provide strategic direction for grants Acquisition in the Malawi National Office.
- To set grant income projections in the NO.
- Lead team planning, ensuring efficient and effective deployment of time and talent to achieve team objectives.
- Lead GAM capacity development planning and implementation in the NO.
- Lead in resolving Grant management issues in the NO.
- Cultivate and maintain targeted donor and development partner relations.
Grants Acquisition
- Manage opportunity pipeline tracking planning ( country level donor mapping, strategic direction and areas of alignment, etc)
- Work with the Regional Office (RO) to develop tools for the NO, to track and prioritize grant opportunities that are aligned with the regional and NO strategic directions.
- Ensure in coordination with the RO and SO, and cross functional team in NO support in proposal development.
- Develop and maintain consortia whenever necessary in preparation for upcoming opportunities.
Donor Engagement
- Identify key relationships to strengthen the national office pre-positioning and elevate WV’s profile with government, multilateral and private sector donors.
- Work with and through RO and in collaboration with SOs colleagues, to maintain strong donor relationships at country level, developing engagement strategies for each donor or a group of donors.
- Develop key marketing material for NOs to preposition WV in Malawi.
- Build relationships and credibility with donors at country level, using previous success and documented best practices in grant management
Grants Management: & Compliance
- Mobilize cross- functional support for GAM performance ( finance, operations, People & Culture , strategy, technical, Quality Assurance)
- Ensure that grants implementation issues have been resolved including Grants audit issues.
- Coordinate with cross functional support, to ensure on time submission of key grant documents as per the agreement (semi & annual reports, mid-term and final evaluation reports, quarterly financial report etc.) and a successful close out of large scale grants.
- In conjunction with finance ensure compliance in key grant areas (e.g. eligibility, CAM, match, grant decision making powers, etc)
Capacity Building
- Lead GAM capacity development planning in the NOs (i.e. identification of capacity gaps at NO s in GAM, capacity building initiatives for NO Staff in Grants acquisition, start-up workshops for new grants according to the grants minimum standards, grants management training in various government and multilateral donors’ regulations, training in common areas leading to poor grant implementation, etc)
National Office representation at various fora:
- To ensure appropriate representation of the NO at strategic fora that could lead to resource acquisition and enhanced programming collaboration.
- Represent the National Office in the grants community fora (internal and external to WV).
- Participate in WV internal grant communities - GAM Hub
Qualifications: Education/Knowledge/Technical Skills and Experience
The following may be acquired through a combination of formal or self-education, prior experience or on-the-job training:
- Educational level required: Bachelor's Degree in Social Sciences, Humanities, Development studies, International Relations or its equivalent, MBA/equivalent preferred
- 3-5 years of senior leadership experience in grant acquisition (with a strong track record of winning grants)
- Demonstrated experience in project management with government and multilateral agencies grant funded projects
- Advanced knowledge/practice of design, monitoring, and evaluation approaches
- Excellent knowledge of grant compliance procedures for major bilateral and multilateral donors and ability to pay attention to detail
- Demonstrated team management experience that includes coaching staff to high levels of performance
- Demonstrated abilities to engage effectively with diverse teams (cross cultural & cross functional) to achieve shared goals
- Ability to engage at a strategic level and build collaborative relationships with donors and other NGOs
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English with strong competency in proposal writing
- Must be a committed Christian, able to stand above denominational diversities.
