Programme Funding Manager

Job Title: Programme Funding Manager

Location: Flexible, home and/or our London office. We are currently asking everyone to attend the office on a designated day once a month, so we have the opportunity to meet and collaborate in-person. Outside of this one day a month, it will be up to you whether you want to work fully from home or to attend the office more regularly. We are more interested in the quality and content of your work, and your ability to work with others and to deadlines, than where you work.

Reporting to: Executive Director

Hours: full-time (we are open to considering flexible arrangements, such as a job share, flexible working hours etc., and might consider a part-time arrangement as long as you can commit to 3-4 days a week)

Salary: £35,000-£40,000 pa

Benefits: employer contribution pension scheme, flexible working/home-based working, 20 days’ holiday pro rata rising by 1 day a year to 25 (in addition, we typically close our office for two weeks over the Christmas/New Year period).

The role: this is a newly created role in SDN and an exciting opportunity to lead the resource mobilisation and project development work of a small NGO. You’ll need to have a strong track record in identifying funding opportunities and developing successful funding applications for institutional donors, and have strong knowledge of good practice in project design and development (e.g. theories of change, logframes). Our recent funding has come almost exclusively from restricted grants from bilateral and multilateral donors, e.g. the UK FCDO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and UN bodies, and trusts and foundations with a strong presence in Nigeria, e.g. the MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa.  

You’ll identify new funding opportunities and work closely with our Senior Project Officers (who lead project delivery under our four thematic areas) in our Port Harcourt office to develop project ideas and proposals, as well as working regularly with a wider team of project, monitoring and evaluation, research and policy, and finance staff members (and partners where relevant) to do this. You’ll also support the Programmes Manager (in Port Harcourt) and Programmes Director (currently Acting Executive Director, based in the UK) to expand SDN’s network and develop proactive funding approaches to new and existing donors.

As one of the most senior members of the SDN team, you will have significant influence in shaping the future of our work.

Job Purpose: to lead the design of high quality projects which will maximise SDN’s impact in the Niger Delta, and to secure funding which enables SDN to deliver these projects. This role has three key objectives:

  1. To lead and support the identification and design of new, high-impact projects
  2. To lead the development of high-quality funding proposals, both to respond to donor funding calls and to proactively pitch to donors
  3. To work with the Programmes Manager and Director to build donor relationships, and to identify and track funding opportunities aligned with SDN’s strategic priorities, and coordinate SDN’s fundraising pipeline processes

Duties:

To lead and support the identification and design of new, high-impact projects

  • Manage and lead the project identification and design processes and activities in line with SDN’s Project Identification and Design manual, working with the relevant Senior Project Officer for the thematic focus of that project
  • Lead partner identification and engagement, working with relevant team members, and manage their participation in the development of new projects
  • Develop plans for the design of new projects and project manage these plans, including coordinating the work of project design team members and identifying and coordinating inputs from other parts of the organisation (e.g. communications, monitoring and evaluation)
  • Act as organisational custodian of the Project Identification and Design manual and its guidance, including training new programmes team members on its content, supporting team members to follow this process, and identifying opportunities to improve the manual and guidance and working with Programmes Management to agree and implement these changes
  • Work with Senior Project Officers and the finance team to lead the development of budgets
  • Work with project teams and monitoring and evaluation staff to ensure lessons learnt from past and existing projects inform new projects
  • Ensure senior management review processes are planned and managed in a timely manner

To lead the development of high-quality funding proposals, both to respond to donor funding calls and to proactively pitch to donors

  • Coordinate SDN’s response to donor calls for proposals, including: reviewing all donor documentation and ensuring they and proposal development teams have a clear understanding of all donor requirements; developing a work plan for the development and submission of proposals; coordinating the inputs of all team members in to proposals; leading other project development activities, such as partner discussions and proposal development workshops; leading the development and collation of all supporting documentation for proposals (e.g. organisational financial information, registration documents)
  • Lead the writing of donor proposals and all related documents, working with relevant team members
  • Working with the Programmes Director and Programmes Manager, identify priority donors to engage and projects to be funded, and support the assigned programmes team members to proactively develop funding proposals and a strategy to engage with potential donors
  • Maintain SDN’s Opportunity Tracker throughout proposal development and submission

To work with the Programmes Manager and Director to build donor relationships, and to identify and track funding opportunities aligned with SDN’s strategic priorities, and coordinate SDN’s fundraising pipeline processes

  • Chair SDN’s funding committee meetings
  • Work with the Programmes Director and/or Executive Director to set the fundraising strategy and priorities
  • Maintain a database of existing and potential institutional donors, and trusts and foundations, with information on associated funding opportunities (the ‘Opportunity Tracker’)
  • Undertake a weekly search for potential funding opportunities via websites and email alerts from key funding information and donor sites, and manage the funding@ email inbox
  • Identify, coordinate and monitor any preparatory activities required in advance of a funding opportunity being released (e.g. background research, discussions with potential partners)
  • Attend donor and funding opportunity meetings with the Programmes Manager, and Programmes Director and/or Executive Director
  • Keep up-to-date on key trends, networks and information on fundraising and donors in international development
  • Support donor engagement for assigned funding opportunities and work with programmes management in the development of new donor relationships

Other

  • Support the Programmes Manager and Director in representing SDN at external meetings and events as requested
  • To abide by SDN’s policies, including its Code of Conduct, Safeguarding Policy and Anti-Fraud and Corruption policy
  • Any other duties that are reasonably asked of them
  • To be able to travel to Nigeria to support proposal development and fundraising activities. There is no set expectation, but we envisage this might be in the region of twice a year for one to two weeks.

Person specification

This role requires someone with significant experience in a similar role. You will have a proactive and hands-on approach, but also be able lead and mentor others. It’s also critical that you can work under pressure and deliver efficiently and effectively to deadlines. The successful candidate will have:

Essential

  • At least five years’ experience in a resource mobilisation and project/proposal development role, preparing donor proposals, leading the design of new projects and supporting other fundraising activities
  • A demonstrable track record of leading multiple successful proposals and securing support from institutional donors in the region of £500k and over (e.g. DFID/FCDO, USAID, EU, large trusts and foundations)
  • Strong knowledge of project design tools/approaches, such as logframes, theories of change etc.
  • Experience developing project budgets
  • Experience working with overseas/remote teams to develop project ideas and proposals
  • Experience of managing donor relationships
  • Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage a number of tasks at once
  • Excellent English writing and editing skills
  • Excellent relationship building and communication skills and ability to work collaboratively across teams with multiple priorities
  • Ability to lead teams, self-motivated and driven to start and complete initiatives of your own accord
  • Proficiency in common software IT packages

Desirable:

  • A background in international development and/or a topic of relevance to SDN (e.g. the extractives industry, good governance)
  • A high level of knowledge of international development donors and fundraising trends
  • Completion of formal training in project design related skills and fundraising (e.g. the logical framework approach, theory of change) 
  • Development and production of written materials in support of fundraising activities (e.g. case studies, capacity statements)

Application process

Please review the job description carefully. Applications should be made by midnight 17th April 2022 by email to info@sdn.ngo quoting the reference ‘PFM22’ in the subject line. Please provide:

1.           Your CV
2.           A two-page maximum cover letter, which explicitly addresses each point in the person specification below

Interviews for the role will be held online, and we will try to hold interviews on a rolling basis if at all possible.

Your application will be reviewed but only shortlisted candidates will receive further correspondence. If you have not heard from us by 26th April, please assume your application was unsuccessful on this occasion.