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Head of Funding & Resources Mobilisation
Job purpose:
The position will be working directly with a core team of direct reports and liaising with fundraisers deployed across the organisation the Head of Funding and Resource Mobilisation is responsible for both actively shaping the income profile and driving sustainable growth in income in alignment with Saferworld’s Global Strategy. The person will seek to refine the flexibility and diversity of sources of income to resource Saferworld’s ambitious peacebuilding objectives and its commitment to Partner fundraising, while actively promoting cross-organisation collaboration and innovation with colleagues who have fundraising responsibilities.
This position will suit a candidate ready to embrace our values and vision, able to accelerate new income streams and help secure greater diversification across our funding base. It is an exciting opportunity to play a strategic role in the shaping of the fundraising and resource mobilisation approach taken by Saferworld.
Roles and responsibilities:
Maintain a strategic overview of funding
- Inspire a coordinated and strategic approach to funding relationships and income generation actions with those who have fundraising responsibilities – guided by funding targets and, where relevant, commercial contracting insight – consistent with the organisation’s priorities and core values.
- Oversee the completion of annual and three-yearly fundraising targets and budgets for individual income streams – in consultation with programme, policy and core function leads – informed by external funding trends analysis and in alignment with the organisation’s strategic priorities.
- Lead the Funding Leadership Team (FLT), and work with colleagues from across programmes in building strategies to influence donors to adopt appropriate and flexible funding models, supportive of local led approaches.
- Support the effectiveness of the FLT and the Prospect Researcher in their role to track and adjust cross-organisational fundraising and income-generating priorities, improving internal processes and ways of working, and guiding positive donor relationships.
- Work closely with the Director of Business Performance to fully engage with the Executive Director and Board of Trustees to drive forward progress on fundraising and provide regular reporting for Saferworld management and the Board on fundraising performance.
Diversify and strengthen Saferworld’s income base
- Lead and facilitate a cross-organisational approach to the pursuit of new and complementary income streams with potential to diversify Saferworld’s funding profile, based on a calculated return on investment.
- In collaboration with the FLT, develop strategies and income targets for donor engagement that can be adopted by programme, senior management and Board of Trustees leads to cultivate innovative funding opportunities.
- Work with teams and the Partner organisations they collaborate with to signpost potential opportunities and content, particularly from new income streams such as digital solicitations, foundations or high net worth individuals.
- Collaborate with Communications teams to develop compelling marketing material for persuasive fundraising and applications.
- Ensure that the organisation identifies and works with Partners to co-create areas of work, supports collective consortia bid development to achieve novel and new ways of resourcing Saferworld’s activities.
Business development
- Cultivate an entrepreneurial approach to innovative funding and resource mobilisation approaches and embed this within the organisation more broadly.
- Play an active role in both the advancing of, and the effective production of, innovative substantial major proposals with others set the tone and standards to achieve high quality funding applications and manage the refinement of internal processes for each stage – from funding opportunity notice through to contract signing (including contract negotiations and donor compliance).
- Actively develop consolidated approaches to proposal development working across the breadth of the geographic and thematic areas covered by Saferworld to enable adequate resourcing of Saferworld’s strategic ambitions while at the same time actively enabling partner driven implementation.
Provide collaborative management
- Manage a core fundraising team and ensure that active functional relationships with colleagues responsible for fundraising is embedded across the organisation
- Foster a target-driven business partnership approach among programme and core function leads, supporting them in understanding and maintaining agreed organisational fundraising standards, and in responding to annual and longer-term funding priorities and income targets.
- Work closely with finance and programme leads to ensure streamlined income and expenditure responsibilities, while driving clear and full cost recovery.
- Ensure that performance data and analysis, and lessons from fundraising experience and performance, are regularly shared and acted upon.
- Update funding procedures and protocols so they remain relevant and user-friendly and are being used, including the full implementation of the organisational database and its direct benefits for fundraising.
- Play an active role as a senior leader in the organisation, supporting organisation-wide initiatives and role modelling behaviours and approaches aligned to organisational culture and values.
Key working relationships
- Senior/Function Directors – reporting to the Director of Business Performance, maintain close working relationships with the Senior Management Team at the strategic level and the Board of Trustees as required.
- Funding Leadership Team – work closely with, the FLT to inspire a coordinated and strategic approach to funding relationships and income generation in line with the organisational strategy and income priorities, and to monitor performance.
- Programme and Core Function Leads – maintain regular contact with programme and core function leads, such as Strategy, Communications, People, Finance and Operations, and promote collaborative working across all parts of the organisation
- External Stakeholders – maintain and establish good working relationships with key donors, commercial partners and peer organisations.
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Scope and accountability
Decision making and limits of authority
- Ensure protocols are in place to guide fundraising-related decision-making
- Facilitate decision-making around strategic funding issues
Financial resources
- Oversee budget of centralised funding team
Other resources
- Appoint and manage external consultants/support when needed
People management
- Direct line management of the core funding team.
- Regular engagement with the FLT and others with fundraising responsibility
Legal, regulatory and compliance responsibility
- Review commercial contracts and ensure donor compliance, for example with IATI
- Oversee and maintain protocols to ensure organisation-wide fundraising-related compliance, including storing of data
Person specification
Knowledge, qualifications and experience
- Significant experience as a leader in a funding environment with strong managerial skills across multiple income streams – with proven international experience – and a record of projects funded, including fundraising beyond government / multi-lateral funding.
- Track record of successfully motivating, mentoring and managing a team and working with that team to think laterally and explore contemporary approaches to fundraising in multiple areas.
- Proven experience of identifying and securing new business opportunities in a for-profit / commercial or non-profit/NGO setting, including the raising of both restricted and unrestricted funds.
- An understanding of programme design and development with prior programming experience beneficial.
- A record in confidently developing networks, building alliances and nurturing ideas and relationships with individuals, new collaborators and funders – including avenues for income generation.
- Experience of developing and embedding cross-organisational systems and processes, and analysing performance data.
- Experience of building funding pipelines and of planning and managing budgets, including commercial budgets.
- Specific experience of digital fundraising desirable; experience of bidding for and managing commercial contracts highly desirable.
- A sound knowledge of the UK’s civil society/charity regulatory requirement is desirable
- Membership for affiliation with a professional institutional body is desirable.
Skills and abilities
- A strategic thinker who can see the bigger picture, spot opportunities and operate with initiative and drive.
- Organised, with attention to detail, and pragmatic in approach.
- Good understanding of marketing and an ability to convey the organisation’s mission and added value to a range of audiences at different levels of seniority and experience.
- A flexible and strong team player with good interpersonal skills who builds on colleagues’ knowledge and expertise to develop innovative ideas and positive learning.
- Able to prioritise and manage a diverse and demanding workload, meet deadlines, and deal with unexpected changes.
- A good understanding of programme design and the translation of complex ideas into fundable proposals.
- Excellent writing skills with attention to detail, along with spoken English and another major international language would be desirable.
- Communicate sensitively and effectively with a wide range of people, including across cultures and with those at a distance.
Personal qualities
- Lead by example, role model leadership qualities and create a safe and respectful environment for all staff
- Commitment to gain knowledge of the full range of activities across the organisation
- Commitment to improving international engagement in conflict affected contexts
- Commitment to and compliance with Saferworld’s safeguarding principles
- Commitment to respect and value equality and diversity, and understanding of how this applies to own area of work
- Commitment to own continuing personal and professional development
- Commitment to the vision, mission and values of Saferworld
Other requirements
- Key member of the leadership team
- Able to travel internationally as when required.
Senior Gender Adviser
Key areas of responsibility
Organisational leadership on gender equality
- Lead in the implementation and MEL of the Gender Equality Strategy: provide accompaniment and technical support to teams in the implementation of the strategy across the organisation, including by developing implementation and tracking/measuring tools and leading internal communications around it.
- Strengthening organisational capacities for meaningfully integrating gender across research, policy and advocacy, communications and programmes.
- Lead in identifying where there are gaps in knowledge, and working with the Gender Team and the Knowledge and Learning Hub and Saferworld Advocacy Group to find innovative or different ways to learn and adapt our peacebuilding work from a gender perspective, and create linkages across the multiple levels and locations where we work.
- Influence and inform organisational decision-making through a gender lens, through formal and informal engagement with leadership teams across the organisation.
- Actively support and advise on internal efforts and initiatives on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Policy and programming leadership on gender transformative peacebuilding and gender, peace and security
- Provide technical support in the design, oversight and/or leadership/management of gender-specific cross-organisational programmes and approaches, and on gender integration and transformation in broader peacebuilding programmes. This includes:
- “Resourcing Change: supporting Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) in Fragile and Conflict Affected Setting”, which provide core, flexible and accessible funding to WROs in FCAS.
- Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Helpdesk, a call-down facility that aims to provide flexible, responsive and easy-to-use technical advice and support on WPS and gender in conflict and crisis contexts to the UK government.
- Develop programmatic approaches, tools and training materials in relation to the gender, peace and security according to organisational and team-specific strategic priorities.
- Provide technical and thought leadership on our gender and peacebuilding policy work, including our policy and advocacy on gender, peace and security. This includes leading or overseeing research and related advocacy and communications on gender, peace and security in coordination with policy, advocacy and communications colleagues.
- Embed learnings from Saferworld programmatic work and research into future planned policy and programming priorities and approaches.
- Sit on the Board of Trustees for Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS UK), the main UK WPS advocacy network, which is hosted by Saferworld, and provide strategic support to the GAPS team and its Director based on our MoU.
Cross-organisational representation and strategic stakeholder engagement
- Represent Saferworld at conferences, seminars and other events in relation to strategic objective on gender equality.
- Engage with donors, wider NGO and policy community, and diverse partners in relation to driving positive change in Saferworld’s gender, peace and security work.
Key working relationships
- Advisers in the Programme Support and Learning Team: in particular the Partnerships, Research and MEL Advisors
- Advisers in the Policy Team, and advocacy and communications colleagues
- Colleagues in the Conflict Advisory Unit: co-leading the UK WPS Helpdesk with the team, external partners and donor.
- Key staff in Saferworld’s regional programmes in Africa, Asia, Central Asia and Middle East & North Africa: develop, implement and MEL on gender integration in peacebuilding programmes and gender-specific programmes.
- Programme Development Managers: providing technical support for fundraising proposals, and strategies for gender funding.
- The Knowledge and Learning Hub: ensuring gender is meaningfully integrated in our cross-organisational research and learning.
- The Saferworld Advocacy Group: ensuring gender is meaningfully integrated in our cross-organisational policy and advocacy work.
- External actors: support gender team in maintaining and developing new relations with relevant Saferworld partner organisations, donors and policy makers on gender, peace and security spaces.
Scope and accountability
Decision making and limits of authority
The post-holder is expected to show considerable leadership within the organisation and to make a significant contribution to strengthening Saferworld’s gender equality strategic objectives.
Financial resources
Some budget and financial management support of cross-organisational specific programmes, and/or oversight particularly during periods of ‘surge support’ to country teams.
Other resources
Responsible for cross-regional and organisational information-sharing and lesson learning regarding research resources and guidance in particular.
People management
Gender advisors & project/programme managers as relevant, as well as consultants as per required
Legal, regulatory and compliance responsibility
Developing research ethics guidance that comply with safeguarding and legal obligations.
Person specification
Knowledge, qualifications and experience
- Extensive experience and knowledge of gender integration in peacebuilding (preferred), development and/or humanitarian policy and practice and into organisational policies, systems and processes
- Extensive experience of providing practical advice, expertise and accompaniment to staff and partners in developing gender-transformative programmes, with a strong intersectional feminist approach to gender.
- Experience and skills in training and facilitation of learning in gender-transformative peacebuilding practice and the provision of capacity-strengthening support to culturally diverse audiences.
- Experience of gender, peace and security policy formulation, advice and successful high-level advocacy in the areas of gender, conflict, security or gender in international development. Experience doing this in the UK setting desirable.
- Relevant Qualification in political science, gender studies, conflict or peace studies or similar area; or equivalent gender integration, programming and policy experience,
- Experience of working in partnership with other NGOs and NGO networks, and preferably women’s rights organisations (WROs) through principles of power-sharing, accompaniment and on feminist movement-building.
- Lived experience or experience living and working in a conflict-affected setting desirable.
Skills and abilities
- Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English. An additional language is desirable, in particular a working language of a country(ies) where Saferworld operates (e.g., Arabic, Russian, Somali, Burmese).
- Experience of training, mentoring, peer support and/or other capacity-strengthening techniques on research design and implementation
- Able to ensure that research is designed and produced/packaged in the most efficient way for influencing policy and practitioner audiences.
- Knowledge of policy-making processes and of interacting with government policy-makers, particularly in the UK desirable.
- Good organisational and planning skills and the ability to work under pressure with the ability to manage multiple and complex priorities to deliver on objectives effectively.
- Ability to work in a non-partisan and impartial manner, particularly in high-stress and highly politicised environments, appreciating gender, cultural and ethnic diversity.
Personal qualities
- Committed to working collaboratively in and across Saferworld teams in a multi-cultural environment
- Committed to Saferworld’s vision, mission and values and way of working, notably in terms of gender equality and strengthening local people’s voices in local and global peace, security and justice policies and processes
- Commitment to and compliance with Saferworld’s safeguarding principles
- Commitment to respect and value equality and diversity, and understanding of how this applies to own area of work
Other requirements
- Travel: Up to 3 months overseas travel per year (non-consecutively)
Method of Application
Send your CV and a covering letter addressing the person specification and why you feel your experience matches the requirements of the role and send to jobs@saferworld.org.uk