Grants Writer and Fundraising Officer at Deevabits Green Energy

DGE is currently building out its Finance and Business Development functions to support business and fundraising strategies in growing the business. This is an exciting opportunity for you to join a fast-growing, highly impactful company as it seeks to expand its operations
across Kenya.

Job Brief:

DGE is devoted to improving the livelihoods of people living in rural areas. Our vision is to grow sustainably in scale impacting millions of people; our ability to do so effectively and rapidly depends on raising and delivering on grants and investments from a wide range of partners, including institutional funders with complex funding requirements.
We are seeking highly-capable, entrepreneurial, motivated and enthusiastic grants and fundraising writer to work with the management to execute and support grants fundraising processes and management, donor and stakeholders engagement, developing proposals, conducting research on available opportunities, project management support, investor and
donor reporting and coordinating with the program teams for timely impact reporting and meeting the strict deadlines on deliverables.

The grants writer will lead the fundraising-related projects at Deevabits by researching available funding opportunities, analysing whether DGE qualifies for the opportunities, writing project proposals and concept notes, managing investor and donor communications and reporting promptly. The officer will handle a wide scope of tasks and challenges that grows the company's financial capacity and long-term strategic vision.

This role reports directly to the CEO in close collaboration with the finance manager and the management team.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Research and identify new sources of funding opportunities from foundations, corporations, and government development agencies.
2. Develop solid project proposals in follow-ups to the opportunities ensuring that DGE qualifies for donor support and funding.
3. Lead DGE’s fundraising activities by coordinating with the management team to engage with investors and other relevant actors
4. Design, build and continuously improve communication systems with current and potential investors through due diligence, investor reporting and impact storytelling promptly.
5. Create reporting tools and systems based on a deep understanding of user needs within functions and across departments and levels to respond to investors’ information requests.
6. Develop and write compelling and impactful grant proposals and donor reports
7. Manage and maintain a donor-client relationship ensuring continued support and future funding opportunities through strategic communications, sharing insights and feedback.
8. Help coordinate/manage the establishment and implementation of Deevabits’ donor - funded projects across Kenya and ensure on-time and complete implementation and reporting.
9. Ensure monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annual donor reports are updated, reviewed and sent to the donors promptly and documented for future reference.
10. Manage digital communication channels and ensure all social media handles are updated with proper company insights, stories, updates and galleries.
11. Any other duties as may be assigned and required from you.

Qualifications Needed

Education and Experience

1. Bachelor degree required
2. Knowledge of international development, renewable energy, last-mile distribution and rural development
3. 5+ years of significant experience and proven success in securing funding from foundations, companies and/or multilateral/bilateral donors.
4. Good understanding of the project management cycle, business and impact acumen
5. Experience living and working in developing countries, especially with scope in the rural or last mile distribution.
6. Experience in grants writing, proposal writing, concept papers, project management and donor communications.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

1. Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal (e.g.: public speaking, presentations, correspondence, proposals and reports), including compelling, clear, succinct and jargon-free writing abilities. Proven writing skills are an absolute must in developing and presenting proposals and donor reports for both internal and external audience
2. Team-oriented and able to work effectively with cross-functional teams to develop and analyze proposals that have both a realistic chance of success but are also realistic in terms of DGE’s capacity to implement
3. Self-motivated and entrepreneurial - must be able to work with limited supervision
4. Creative, critical and analytical thinker - able to co-design implementable projects with program teams
5. Resilient and persistent: Must be able to bounce back from donor rejection (e.g. to proposals) and, where there is funding potential, able to identify alternative avenues to secure support
6. Charisma, ability to articulate DGE’s mission and programs to inspire others through in-person meetings, phone and video conference
7. Strong computer skills – Microsoft Office, Internet, fundraising database (i.e. Raiser’s Edge), and demonstrated competency working with and developing budgets using Excel
8. Commitment to DGE’s mission, purpose and values, and to its methodology, history, culture, programs and constituencies
9. Fluent in written and spoken English preferred.