Global Grants Manager

Job Description

This role falls within our Strive Community program work. The Grants Manager will support Strive Community’s Regional Program Managers with the set-up, coordination, implementation and management of programs and activities that support grants, partnerships and other strategic initiatives. This will include:

Coordinate grantee management for the lifecycle of the grant, across the entire portfolio:

• Work closely with Program Managers to maintain and grow a portfolio of grants, specifically on management of internal processes including preparation of program memos for advisory board and client, advising on granting structure and payment schedule, ensuring process compliance, maintaining internal systems, completing initial due diligence, and timeline management.
• Preparation of sub grant agreements, in collaboration with Program Directors and legal team.
• Ability to set up new processes, execute processes thoroughly, proactively identify recommendations for process improvement, and execute on those recommendations without guidance or supervision.
• Assistance preparing and circulating RFPs, and managing applications and shortlisting processes.
• Sufficient sector knowledge to have preliminary input into grantee and partner selection.
• Track receipt of required monitoring reports, in collaboration with the measurement team.
• Review portfolio reports, identify trends, highlight issues and discrepancies.
• Complete grant synthesis reports, with inputs from Program Directors.

Financial planning and analysis:

• Manage financial data for all grants, including deliverables paid to date, forecast, and review of expenditure reports
• Overview of subgrant budget in aggregate, to support strategy planning and financial decision making

Partnerships management and contracting:

• Creation of vendor contracts, license agreements and partnership agreements,
• Management of contract signing process, including file organization ensuring confidentiality when required.

Strategy support:

• Work on special team projects, strategic as well as operational, as needed. Usually this will relate to the grant making pipeline.
• Support with the annual pipeline planning process.
• Conducting ecosystem mapping desk research to support country and subject matter expansion.

Project Management:

• Support the team on all aspects of internal meetings such as weekly team meetings, strategic planning meetings and learning sessions, including scheduling, agenda management, logistics, time tracking, attendee management.
• Support the team on all logistical of external meetings, such as roundtable discussions and panels at external events
• Support staffing processes such as onboarding of new hires and recruitment.
• Ownership of processes, tools, systems and templates used within the program, including: identifying appropriate software and tools to support the program; assessing and presenting the options; purchasing, implementing and training the team on new tools and processes.

• Minimum of 7 years full-time work experience in a similar role, international experience preferred. We are looking for someone truly experienced to bring their expertise to the program.
• Experience with financial services, financial inclusion, small business support and / or digital platforms is a plus
• Previous experience working in the area of grant management is a requirement
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• A self-starter, who proactively identified issues and solves them
• Someone who enjoys developing, optimizing and following a process
• Highly organized with strong coordination and time management skills
• Impeccable communicator who is able to convey issues clearly and in a timely manner, who knows when to escalate and does so effectively
• Highly digitally competent, familiar with all the basic collaborative tools and more.
• An process and coordination wizz, with great attention to detail and strong analytical details
• Able to communicate appropriately with all communities and cultures: respectful of everyone, everywhere
• Inclusive and supportive of colleagues, a team player, and fun to work with.
• Can be based anywhere.

About the Organization

Caribou Digital is a research and advisory firm that helps clients change the world through building inclusive and ethical digital economies. We work across a range of sectors and businesses, from startup financing to data analytics, to financial inclusion and the use of space for development, to ensure our clients lead the field in the use of technology to deliver equitable and sustainable development.

Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees are vital engines of economic resilience and growth. They contribute to GDP, spark innovative technologies and business models, and create 23% of jobs globally (70% in emerging markets). As economies grapple with the downturn caused by Covid-19, the world needs these small businesses to survive and thrive, now more than ever.

Strive Community is a global initiative of Caribou Digital and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth which aims to empower 5 million small businesses around the world to survive and grow by going digital. Grants are awarded to best-in-class grantees which deliver the most innovative data and digital-first solutions to enable small companies to digitize business operations, access digital financial services and engage in digital markets. We also partner with some of the most transformative digital platforms globally (e-commerce and ride hailing companies, social media platforms, mobile network operators, fintechs, etc) to extend these solutions to the small businesses which have the greatest potential to use them to catalyze their growth. Currently we have funded 18 grantees to design and deliver programs across 15 countries, and are looking to grow our portfolio further in 2023