Director - STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS - RE-ADVERTISEMENT

  • Full-time

Company Description

CARE is an international NGO with local staff and community partners in 100 countries. We create local solutions to poverty and inequality and we seek dignity for everyone every day and during times of crisis.  These solutions have a broad range, from disaster response to food and nutrition to education and work for women and girls to healthy mothers and children. CARE puts women and girls at the center of everything we do because when they have equal access to resources, they lift their families and communities out of poverty. Our staff live where they work, which makes us effective at understanding the challenges they face. We’ve been doing this for 75 years, since World War II. It started with the world’s first CARE Package® of food for the post-war hungry in Europe. Our work today is as important as ever, we believe that poverty and inequality are historic injustices that we can end within a generation, for good. If you share our core beliefs: poverty is an injustice; poverty is solvable; and together, we have the power to end it, join us, and Fight with CARE.​

Job Description

The Director will drive strategic and proactive resource mobilization and work to improve donor and internal CARE engagement/visibility. S/he will proactively identify and track donor opportunities, facilitate donor engagement, develop fundraising strategies, support development and sharing of marketing materials, and coordinate proposal development for large and strategic funding opportunities. The Director will also play a key role in identifying and nurturing partnership opportunities to maximize collective impact. The position is also responsible for development and implementation of Resource Mobilization processes and tools (e.g., proposal development, RM knowledge management, RM reporting, etc.). 

The Director of Strategy and Partnerships (S&P) is a key member of CARE Kenya’s Senior Management Team and shall actively support the Country Director (CD) and other Directors in maintaining good working relationships with host government officials, donors and other partners.  This position is based in Nairobi, Kenya. The Director of Strategy and Partnerships will work closely with, and will be supported by program units, and colleagues in the regional office, as well as by other CARE International members who work with CARE Kenya. The S&P is expected to form close relationships with all CI members to enhance CARE Kenya’s profile as a preferred Country Office to work with.   

Job Responsibility: Strategic Planning, Research, and Learning (20%) 

  • Update and evolve the resource mobilization strategy on a yearly basis in collaboration with the CARE International Member Partners and CARE USA Resource Mobilization teams liaising with members to determine opportunities, support global donor relationship management, and align member and country funding strategies. 
  • Lead portfolio and funding assessment and analyses (portfolio analysis, donor landscape assessments, funding opportunity assessment) in order to identify and strategically invest in potential donors to advance the country office strategy. 
  • Actively track trends and advise staff on strategic opportunities, relationships, and pivots necessary to grow. 
  • Conduct win/loss analysis and provide recommendations for the country office to increase success rate, while maintaining an appetite for innovative programme design.
  • Maintain an ongoing and regularly updated knowledge management system inclusive of context analyses, proposals, and other resource relevant for future proposal development (gender equality, protection risks situational analysis, assessments, DHS data, field research on community needs, etc.). 
  • Ensure RM efforts align with the Country Office and CARE regional and Global strategies.  

Job Responsibility: New Business Identification and Intelligence Gathering (30%) 

  • Identify, research, track, and disseminate information on new funding opportunities from bilateral, multi-lateral and other institutional, private sector, and non-traditional donors in line with the CARE Kenya Growth Strategy.
  • Develop and maintain funding tracking systems and mechanisms to track specific opportunities as well as progress against the country strategy and annual targets, and revise/track annual fundraising targets and forecasts accordingly. Regularly report on opportunities and metrics to relevant staff. 
  • Pro-actively seek donor intelligence on prospective new opportunities or partnership. Document information in the tracker. 
  • Engage and provide regular updates to the SMT on the status of the funding portfolio, GNG decisions, and key trends to monitor. 
  • Manage and track information necessary for effective capture planning and proposal development 

Job Responsibility: External Engagement Support and Marketing (20%) 

  • Lead the development of donor engagement plans and optimise donor engagement. Provide active support to all staff on their engagements in line with the broader strategy. 
  • Support Country Director and staff to initiate and maintain donor contacts, plan and prepare for meetings and strategic engagements.      
  • Develop and maintain systems and tools to track contacts, external positioning opportunities, and donor engagements. 
  • Ensure key contacts, required formats and donor strategies are kept up-to-date at the country office level.  In collaboration with PQL manager and program staff, maintain updated capacity statements, factsheets, brochures and visibility materials. Work with staff to ensure relevant content is actively shared externally. 
  • Support strengthening CARE Kenya’s internal and external communications to enhance our program’s impact and our image among the donors. S/he will support in development and implementation of Communications and Outreach strategy, and provide necessary guidance to the team in preparation and production of CARE ‘s communications materials  
  • Research, identify and disseminate information on different actors (NGOs, Private sector, Government, Donors) to inform strategic new partnerships and consortia. 
  • Cultivate business relationships with external stakeholders and potential partners for large scale or strategic funding opportunities, either as a prime or sub-recipient in joint ventures. As relevant, negotiate teaming agreements. 

Job Responsibility: Proposal Coordination and Development (30%) 

  • Be the in-country, principal coordinator for proposal development including the development of high-value or complex proposals or bids, building on global, regional and national expertise, and ensuring the highest quality product. This includes managing the overall process, developing the proposal calendar, assigning roles, facilitating workshops, and ensuring inputs from staff are timely, competitive, and compliant.  
  • In collaboration with the country office program technical leads, facilitate partnerships with global impact teams and solicit global support for proposals. 
  • Actively engage with partners around prime and sub opportunities. Lead on teaming agreements where appropriate. 
  • Maintain an updated database of high performing consultants and facilitate engagement of consultants on proposals, or when technical specialists are needed.  
  • Drive interdepartmental coordination for proposal development working with key staff to support them working together to produce high quality proposals. This includes the Program Director, PQ Director, and technical leads (program design, technical inputs, strategies), Operations (for field team inputs, logistics requirements, security, costings, etc.), Grants and Contracts (for donor requirements), Finance (for budgets), Security and Human Resource (HR) (for staffing requirements). 
  • Ensure full internal and CMP review for proposals. Ensure sign off by the Country Director or delegate on final proposals prior to submission 
  • Actively participate in key relevant internal meetings such as annual planning meetings, SMT meetings, etc.  

Qualifications

  • Minimum requirement is a university degree or equivalent in Business Administration, Law, Economics, International Relations, International Development or other related field or equivalent experience. 
  • Minimum Five years international development experience.  
  • Knowledge and experience in Business Development and fundraising concepts and practice with foreign aid and non-profit organizations.      
  • Demonstrated experience utilizing diverse, proactive strategies to competitively position his/her organization for new funding and productive institutional relationships. 
  • Demonstrated experience in leading strategic and operational planning  
  • Proven ability to identify and foster new business opportunities and partnerships  
  • Demonstrated leadership and management skills in a very complex international setting   
  • Demonstrated leadership and interpersonal skills  
  • Strong representation and negotiation skills  
  • Demonstrated use of positive coping strategies in stressful environments 
  • Demonstrated cross cultural communication skills  
  • Experience in successfully managing institutional partnerships with national and international NGOs  
  • Experience in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships with donors and government counterparts.  
  • Demonstrated experience with proposal development with range of international donors (i.e. USAID, EU, ECHO, DFID, CIDA, UNHCR, WFP….) 
  • Experience working with and coaching technical teams to develop complex program proposals that are funded by institutional donors  
  • Ability to work effectively with others in a team across institutional boundaries and business units. Proven ability to utilize talent and expertise of team members to achieve objectives  
  • Ability to adapt and work within a multicultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary environment  
  • Superior verbal and written communications skills in English with ability to analyze and synthesize complex issues into appealing presentations/pitches/proposals and to develop targeted marketing materials as needed
  • Strong proven ability to identify and articulate strategic and policy issues through effective oral and written briefs  
  • Excellent computer skills, including various office applications and internet navigation  
  • Solid understanding of a rights-based approach and gender sensitive, and experience in the NGO sector
  • DESIRABLE 
  • Experience with USAID, EU guidelines and procedures 
  • Work experience in Kenya or the wider region (ECSA)
  • Good knowledge about key issues of development and transition in the INGO sector  

Additional Information

WORKING CONDITIONS

The position is based in Nairobi with regular visits/support to the Sub offices as needed.  Travel will constitute about 10 - 30% of the time.  

CONTACTS/KEY RELATIONSHIPS (internal & external):

CARE International Business Development leads

CARE International and CARE Kenya Technical Unit Leads and Staff 

Donor agencies, government ministries, private sector entities and other stakeholders.   

Deadline to receive all applications will be on or before  16th November 2021, at 5.00 P.M EAT. Only short listed candidates will be contacted. Canvassing will lead to automatic disqualification.

Applicants who had applied before do not need to apply.

This Position is subject to  Kenyan Nationals and None Kenyans with work permit eligibility.

CARE does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. Qualified Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply. CARE has a commitment to gender, equity and diversity in our workplace and operations. CARE respects and values diversity and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, age, disability, religion or politics. This is reflected in our recruitment decisions which are made entirely through a transparent, merit-based selection process. All CARE staffs are required to comply with the Code of Conduct, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Child Protection (CP) policies.