Proposal Development Manager at World Wide Fund for Nature

Job description

Location:

Nairobi, Kenya or flexible internationally (open for mutual discussion).

Background:

Convene and facilitate the process and develop powerful stories with strategic content to develop compelling proposals, based on defined strategy and identified opportunities. Collaborate with areas of expertise within the Practice, as well as galvanising cross-office coordination for ‘big topics’. Collect and share best practice for proposals. Provide on-demand help with proposal development.

Main functions:

• Together with the Practice Leadership, and the Network Fundraising community, identify critical programme needs that require funding and match these to funding opportunities in support of the Global Goal
• Work with Network fundraising and partnership experts to ensure that proposal development is accurately tuned to match their requirements
• Work with fundraising community to develop funding events that allow WWF to showcase is biggest and most promising ideas to most promising donors
• Project coordination of the proposal development for big topics i.e. collect and share best-practices to utilise the full potential of most recent know-how across the network.
• Provide assistance, upon request from offices, with communication/content/grant proposal representation toward the donors.
• Contribute to the Knowledge-Management platform to share learnings.
• Liaise with Focal Points and Fundraising leads in Offices and coordinate with the Practice to support fundraising concepts and proposals (co-design).
• Coordinate stewardship and reporting requirements.
• Liaise regularly with Focal Points and Practice Members to share developments, updates and progress.
• Additional duties and responsibilities as required by the Practice Leader
• Major Duties and Responsibilities:
• Accountability for providing content agenda to the Network.
• Support Practice agenda development, jointly with Practice core team.
• Liaise closely with other Deputy Practice Leaders to facilitate integration with other Practice activities.
• Support Practice Leader in anchoring a shift from individual programming to a focused set of 2025 goals;
• In coordination with other Deputy Practice Leaders, ensure a network wide dialogue and interaction that enables the best ideas to rise to the surface
• Instil in the Practice team a culture of innovation and learning
• Develop a process of linking, selecting and nurturing the best ideas that show greatest promise of delivering transformative impact against our Goals and Outcomes;
• Manage this process through the phases of funding, potential evaluation, monitoring, reporting, network-wide sharing and scaling up.
• Support Practice success through Critical contributions at country level to Goals at global level
• Support Practice Leader with peer review, transparent external and internal reporting on all critical contributions and progress.
• Manage the Practice in the absence of the Practice Leader.
• Additional duties and responsibilities as required by the Practice Leader

Required Qualifications, Skills and Competencies

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in English, journalism, communications, international relations or related relevant field.
• Excellent written and oral skills in English;
• At least ten years’ relevant professional experience in writing marketing, fundraising, PR or communications materials
• Experience of working in an international environment, particularly an NGO, experience in regions like Africa and Asia would be an advantage.
• Proven ability to create donor friendly materials including experience in grant/proposal and donor report writing and understanding of the principles of communications and fundraising, especially donor needs. Experience of producing fundraising appeals (online, or through direct mail) an advantage.
• Excellent editing and proofreading skills with very high attention to detail.
• Knowledge of fundraising principles and practices, preferably in a nonprofit environment.
• Ability to coordinate/manage processes and projects that require participation and contribution from staff for which the post holder has no direct supervisory responsibility.
• Demonstrated competencies in all relevant computer packages required for writing and formatting materials.
• Ability to manipulate, analyze and interpret data, and good understanding on developing proposal budgets.
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and ability to coordinate projects with many variables, set and meet realistic deadlines, and manage a timeline under pressure.
• Ability to communicate a compelling and inspired vision in written and presentation materials and to formulate and clearly communicate ideas to others.
• Passion for conservation and adheres to WWF’s values, which are: Knowledgeable, Optimistic, Determined and Engaging.