Development Specialist at World Resources Institute (WRI)

Job Highlight: 

• As the Development Specialist - WRI Africa, your primary responsibility will be to lead the proposal development process and manage local and regional partnerships to improve WRI Africa’s ability to attract and deliver large-scale funding in seven and eight figure range. Working with the Senior Development Manager, WRI Africa Programmes Teams, and other teams, you will help develop and implement strategies to achieve sustainable funding that aligns with the ambition and opportunities of WRI Africa's goals. You will have fundraising experience, and a proven record of accomplishment of securing grants from foundations, governments, and multilateral organizations. You will oversee prospect research, lead on proposal writing, internal project framing and support on donor stewardship. You will participate in joint fundraising across the organization to produce compelling multi-faceted proposals for major awards and enhance individual project and Africa office development strategies and proposals. You will also contribute to the development of relevant fundraising strategies related to WRI Africa's portfolio, and matrix into WRI's global development team to ensure coordination with other WRI Programs, Centers, and International Offices while ensuring following WRI's development processes.

You will report to the Senior Development Manager with a dotted line to the Deputy Regional Director.

Some international travel may be required. Fluency in French is a significant advantage.

What will you do:

Proposal Development and Internal Coordination (70%):

• Lead on drafting responses to funding opportunities based on inputs from WRI Africa Programmes Teams and ensuring submission of quality concept notes and proposals including accurate budgets.
• Oversee internal organization for bid development, ensuring strict adherence to established internal development processes.
• Draft strategic briefs and presentations to inform and guide important interactions and dialogues with prospective donors.
• Support annual and multi-year project planning efforts to ensure the development of aligned projects, and compelling offers, to ensure strategic engagement on fundraising priorities and opportunities.
• Communicate donor restrictions and reporting requirements; monitor compliance in collaboration with WRI Africa’s operations team
•  Ensure adherence to WRI’s fundraising & development guidelines and corporate vetting procedures, working with colleagues in WRI Africa and on the Global Development team
• Work with the Senior Development Manager to strengthen and lead fundraising coordination and proposal development processes in WRI Africa, with WRI’s Global Development team

Donor Stewardship and Prospect Development (30%):

• Support in identifying, and researching new major prospective donors and funding opportunities in the six and seven-figure range.
• Assist in the development and implementation of strategies aimed at achieving sustainable funding that aligns with the ambition and opportunities of WRI Africa.
• Contribute to the development and management of external partnerships to enhance WRI’s ability and position the organization to attract and deliver large-scale multi-year funding.
• Engage in direct fundraising activities such as proposal pitches, strategic partnership development meetings and donor cultivation engagements jointly with other WRI Africa Team members. 
• Directly support the WRI Africa programmes team in donor cultivation efforts with current and prospective donors, arranging meetings, leading preparations, and tracking donor engagement with an emphasis on enhancing relationship-building efforts.
• Actively manage a revenue and opportunity pipeline for WRI Africa on Salesforce and lead regular reviews with WRI Africa leadership to ensure a proactive strategy for revenue management and development is maintained.
• Support donor relationship management by working with program teams to track all donor outreach activities in Salesforce and ensure appropriate follow-up on donor requests.
• Provide expert development advice, including training and strategy development, to WRI Africa managers.

What will you need:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, international development, public administration, social sciences or related subject required
• Experience: Minimum 5 years of relevant, full-time experience including 2 additional years of experience in a development position with major fundraising responsibilities
• International experience strongly preferred with prior experience of working in the development field and preferably in the international NGO sector is essential.
• Excellent prospect research skills; understanding of what constitutes relevant and strategic information and how to analyze the data to support prospect development
• Excellent proofreading experience to translate technical information into lay language; experience developing and organizing proposals for varying audiences
• Working knowledge of MS Office 365, SharePoint and Salesforce
• Excellent communication skills to diplomatically guide peers and directors through strategy conception to concrete proposed deliverables focused on impact at global scale
• Languages: English. Fluency in French both spoken and oral is an added advantage
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization