Funding Officer at Acord International

Background

ACORD (Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development) is a Pan African non-governmental organisation that has been working for social justice and development in Africa since 1976. Our work is guided by a number of fundamental values and working principles, chief amongst these is our belief that people themselves are the primary actors in their own development.

ACORD seeks to go beyond addressing the consequences of poverty by understanding, challenging and changing the conditions that cause poverty and exclusion. ACORD believes that people have a right to a just and equal society and are committed to making that right a reality for people on the margins of African societies. We work in common cause with people who are poor and have been denied their rights to understand, challenge and change these conditions. Our grassroots level approach ensures that solutions are community owned and led, driving program efficacy and sustainability. We work in alliance with organisations worldwide to achieve these aims.

The Funding Officer is a member of the Funding and Partnership Development team. There is close interaction with colleagues in the London Secretariat and country offices across Africa. The Funding Officer will report directly to the Director, Funding and Partnership Development.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Funding Officer will contribute to ACORD’s overall strategic objectives, with emphasis on the areas listed further below.

ACORD’s approach is focused on civic-driven change, that is people-centred and citizen led, and is a catalyst for holistic positive transformation in society. ACORD builds and strengthens civil society within African communities, from the local to the national level. ACORD works with civil society organisations to strengthen their capacities and ability to engage with decision-makers and represent their own interests, claiming community rights, contributing to policy formation, and implementing processes that foster accountability.

In collaboration with communities, ACORD addresses the root causes of poverty by focusing on three core services: peace building, rights and responsibilities promotion, and livelihoods resilience.

ACORD is grant funded. We work towards enhancing the quality of funding, ensuring operational and financial efficiency and achieving financial stability. Doing so, we are building strategic alliances and partnerships, focussing on continuous improvement and systems enhancement and streamlining internal and external communication.

It is essential to ensure compliance and high quality reporting on ongoing contracts with a view to secure better quality predictable, multi-annual framework agreements with key strategic partners in the long run.

In this context the Funding Officer has a critical role to:

1. Conduct accurate research of possible fundraising and consortium opportunities

· Identify potential funding sources and consortium opportunities in cooperation with colleagues in the Secretariat and country offices.

· Assist country offices in the scoping of potential partners present at the country level, including donor embassies, and agree on a plan for courtesy visits and interaction.

· Contribute to continuous scanning of partnership and funding opportunities and systematic sharing of findings with relevant colleagues.

· Maintaining up to date donor mapping database.

2. Programme Development and Drafting funding proposals

· Contribute to programme development and its articulation in fundable concept notes and the preparation of strategically aligned funding proposals in cooperation with ACORD colleagues in Secretariat and country offices as well as eventual consortium members.

· Ensure the timely and complete submission of concept notes and proposals according to the required formats and timeframes.

· Maintaining the records of initiatives taken, follow-up and outcomes to allow lesson learning and continuous improvement.

3. Grant management

· Notify responsible country offices and Secretariat colleagues of due reporting dates ahead of time, advise them on relevant donor reporting formats and criteria and follow-up to ensure drafts are in compliance with expectations and are produced in a timely fashion.

· Coordinate the Secretariat review of draft reports, submission of comments and organisation of technical support if required to enable the responsible officers to prepare a final draft report.

· Do final quality control and edits and submit reports to external partners in a timely fashion.

· Ensure conditions for donor claims are met and timely claims submitted

4. Strengthening visibility of ACORD’s work

· Help in gathering information from country programmes for use in newsletters and communication material

· Support regular updating and contributing to the ACORD website and social media

· Support country programmes in profiling ACORD at country level

5. Any other emerging area of work

· In consultation with the line manager, there might be updates to the job description from time to time.

Required Qualifications

· Graduate level degree in a relevant field of study or equivalent work experience

· A minimum of 2 years fundraising experience in institutional or large trust and foundation funding

Relevant Knowledge, Skills and Qualities

· Experience in the international development sector

· Experience of writing high quality fundraising applications, donor reports and case study materials

· Experience fundraising & managing grants from USAID & North American foundations would be an advantage along with EU/ECHO funding experience or similar institutional donors

· Excellent written and oral communications skills, (French language skills would be an added advantage)

· Excellent collaboration and team work

· Excellent partnership building and negotiation skills

· Fully conversant with ICT and office applications

· Creativity, innovation and ability to take initiative

· Ability to work well in a multicultural environment across different geographical locations

· Ability to handle change and unpredictability

· Ability to deliver under pressure to work with deadlines and to multi-task

· Highly self-motivated

· Attention to detail

· Ability to conceptualize and present ideas in a clear and convincing manner

· Good analytical and strategic skills

· Good understanding of the development challenges in Africa and trends in the funding environment for NGOs