Fundraising Specialist at Sanergy

About the Role

Fresh Life is looking for an exceptional individual to join our Business Development team. The Grants and Fundraising Specialist supporting philanthropic funders will be responsible for driving the fundraising strategy to secure and manage significant income from a diverse range of funders to support Fresh Life’s expansion into new cities in Kenya and across Africa. They will lead collaborative research, engagement strategy and proposal development for funders to increase the scale and impact of the organization. A confident networker, they will represent the organization at meetings, forums and events in order to initiate and strengthen strategic relationships. They will support the organization in the research and development of strategies for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with government entities. They will contribute to the organizational business development knowledge with best practices, procedures, and tools for the diversification of financing structures.

Duties and Responsibilities

New - Business Development – 40% 

• Build and manage strong, trust-based relationships with key stakeholders, especially philanthropic donors, in the WASH industry.
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness of business development processes, including proposal development, partnership management, financial reporting, etc. 
• Craft strong, tailored messages that resonate with existing and new partners and funders
• Listing for new business, such as searching for new opportunities, conducting due diligence, following up on new fundraising leads and ensuring their application. 
• Remain abreast of sectors and funders’ trends in line with sustainable development goals, build organizational understanding of new funders and contribute information for prioritization of funding opportunities for replication and scale
• Proactively share opportunities for partnership improvement with our funding partners, including engagement materials, network connections, etc.
• Coordinate the negotiations and compliance of agreements and contracts with partners  
•  Lead engagement with existing funders to achieve partnership goals and fundraising targets (being the main focal point)

Grants management roles - 40% 

• Maintain and regularly update the philanthropic grants module using the provided grants management system, this will include budgets and relevant burn rates, adherence to contracts/agreements, funder -reporting, key funder points, funder communication and other relevant project documents. 
• Apply reports and data analytics with an aim of performance improvement, and ensure the leadership team is updated on a regular basis;
• Together with Business development leadership, and relevant project teams, take part in portfolio review meetings to discuss the status of implementation of projects, follow ups on expenditures (Budget Variance Analysis), challenges as well as flagging key issues for attention.
• Represent Fresh life in dynamics and feedback meetings with respective funders
• Follow up on key actions from the Grants Review Meetings (GRM) with the relevant teams;
• Ensure quality information management related to grants (including managing documentation and trackers)
• Ensure Grants folder on SharePoint is up to date
• Ensure reporting requirements for all funders are met and reports are completed to deadlines

 Fundraising – 20% 

• Work with colleagues in Business development, in strengthening various process tools development, to enhance prudent grant monitoring, and new business development 
• Support leadership team to manage funders' relationship and engagement strategy - Work with operational team to build proposal and meet funders' requirements 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business related field of study
• 5+ years of work experience in fundraising or business development in a global development context.
• Demonstrated understanding of and experience in international development or the social sector more broadly. Knowledge of the sanitation sector is a plus.
• Previous experience collaborating with the government at the national and county level is preferred
• Confident external communication and excellent writing skills.
• Highly organized team player, with proactive and flexible work style. 
• Strong existing funder networks preferred. Ideal candidate would be able to leverage past relationships to develop a strong pipeline of new partnerships.
• Impeccable integrity and ethics.