Strategic Fundraising Manager at Aga Khan Foundation

Are you passionate about developing high impact funding partnerships in East Africa? AKFEA is in an expansion period and inviting applications from qualified candidates for the position of Strategic Fundraising Manager, based in Nairobi. This position will report to the Head of Partnerships. The overall objective of this position is to expand AKF’s resource mobilisation and partnership building efforts. The incumbent will be a resource person, responsible for providing relevant advice and support to staff across the East Africa region. S/he will focus on processes of proposal development, donor intelligence and trend analysis, and special initiatives that strategically position AKFEA to access greater income.

AKF EA works in collaboration with partners to develop and promote innovative solutions that contribute to improving the quality of life in East Africa. Focusing on Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, AKF responds to local and regional priorities by developing effective programming, measuring and documenting results, and sharing its lessons with governments, donors, and development actors to influence policy and practice.

Specifically, the Strategic Fundraising Manager will:

• Provide technical guidance to country offices around business development processes and procedures, and donor intelligence and requirements.
• Lead on the initial editorial and critical review of proposals generated by other staff across the region.
• Gather donor intelligence (e.g. through desk based research, networking and soliciting intelligence) to identify funding leads and analyze resource mobilization trends in Kenya/East Africa
• Support development of high quality proposals for competitive and unsolicited funding opportunities with a diverse range of institutional, corporate and philanthropic donors and foundations.
• Work with the Regional Communications Lead on AKF’s ‘Case for Support Project’ – a comprehensive undertaking to effectively position the organization to a variety of priority partners – including donors, government, beneficiaries and implementing agencies.
• Support the Head of Partnerships in executing donor outreach ‘special projects,’ including donor forums, roundtables etc.
• Frequently travel within Kenya, and Uganda and Tanzania as necessary to support resource mobilization efforts.

Required Qualifications and Experience:

• Demonstrable experience securing large competitive and unsolicited funding from a range of institutional donors.
• Must possess excellent communications, interpersonal, proposal writing, coordination and research skills with a willingness to visit programmes in the field.
• Must be client-oriented, proactive, able to multitask, meet tight timelines and results oriented.
• Minimum of Seven years of relevant experience and a master’s degree or equivalent in International Development or other relevant fields.