Director of Grants

Director of Grants (US-based, ideally Washington DC)

Salary: $86,500 - $100,158

Are you passionate about ending extreme poverty in Sub Saharan Africa?  Have you got more than 6 years’ experience in securing funds from bi-lateral donors, multi-lateral donors, and foundations?  Are you looking for a leadership role in a small and high-performing team, who love supporting the organization to reach new heights and sharing humorous memes by Slack?  If so, you might be our new Director of Grants!

About Village Enterprise:

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship and innovation.  To date, Village Enterprise has transformed the lives of over 1.4 million people living in extreme poverty in Africa. The organization’s new strategy focuses on ‘scale and impact’, and has ambitious goals in both areas. Village Enterprise intends to impact the lives of 20 million people living in extreme poverty by 2030. Over the next three years, we plan to significantly increase the number of households we serve (from 24,000/year to over 105,000/year) and expand into new countries. This will require growing our budget from $10 million to $25 million+ and continue to expand our reserve to ensure financial sustainability. Our new Director of Grants will be accountable for securing restricted funds from institutional donors, reporting to our Chief Strategy & Partnerships Officer and managing our Grants Manager.  S/he will work closely with our philanthropy team (US based), our marketing and comms team (US based) and partnerships team (East Africa based).  The role will be part of our Senior Management Team, which is predominantly based in East Africa.

• Senior Leadership

  • Jointly responsible for meeting strategic fundraising target ($60M by end of FY2025), in partnership with Chief Strategy & Partnerships Officer, Head of Philanthropy & Results Based Funding, and Director of Philanthropy.
  • Accountable for achieving institutional fundraising target ($33M by end of FY2025).
  • Create and spearhead a new strategy for increasing funding from bi and multilateral donors, building on current successes (where, in the most part, we are subs in larger consortia).

• Institutional Fundraising

  • Identify, develop, and manage strategic funding partnerships with key institutional donors, including multi and bilateral donors (e.g. USAID, FCDO), and large foundations (e.g. IKEA Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation etc).
  • Develop engagement strategies and build relationships with institutions identified as strategic (either personally or through executive team members)
  • Lead the proposal development process for strategic funding opportunities
    • Work closely with Operations, Programs, Impact, & M&E to ensure proposals align with current program needs and organizational strategy and priorities.
    • Collaborate with the finance team on proposal budget development to ensure accuracy and compliance.
  • Oversee the grants management and stewardship process for existing restricted grants and donors.
    • Manage Grants team
    • Manage the team’s objectives and oversee work plans, ensuring deadlines are adhered to and internal systems are followed for all stages of grant cycles.
  • Oversee prospecting and research, working closely with the team to provide leadership on research and prospecting efforts.
  • Actively work with Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer and other Senior Management Team members to determine the suitability of funding opportunities for Village Enterprise-based strategic plan and programmatic needs.

• Institutional Fundraising Strategy

  • Lead the fundraising strategy for restricted institutional income
  • Lead Grants team to develop and pursue a solid long-term pipeline of prospects and opportunities, in line with the organization’s strategy and in close collaboration with the Chief Strategy and Partnerships Officer
  • Set and manage the Grants team expenditure budget
  • Set overall objectives for the Grants team in line with the Development team and the overall organization strategy

• Institutional Salesforce Database Management

  • Ensure systems are functional to maintain high-quality information on the salesforce database.
  • Actively work to improve upon cross-functional systems to accommodate increasing organization growth and various contracting types.
  • Support Grants team to maintain accurate data entry for existing grants, partners, and prospects.

• General Development Responsibilities

  • Work with the marketing and communications team to develop materials needed for cultivating institutional partnerships
  • Represent Village Enterprise at conferences and events as needed.

About you:

The successful candidate will meet the following criteria:

• Self-motivated and value-driven leader that shares Village Enterprise’s organizational values of Ubuntu, innovation, passion, integrity, and sustainability.
• 6 years’ experience in institutional fundraising, with a proven track record in raising funds from bi and multi-lateral donors and foundations.
• At least 3 years’ experience leading multi-million institutional funding applications, and preferably operating at senior management level.
• Experience in international development, with preference for experience in Sub Saharan Africa.

In addition, the following is desirable:

• Experience leading institutional donor strategy and development at an international NGO.
• Good knowledge of Salesforce.
• Based in Washington DC