African Parks is seeking a collaborative and solutions-oriented Grants Management Specialist for a full-time role. This person will help African Parks continue to build a dynamic Institutional Funding portfolio, ensuring our systems successfully enable staff to pursue African Parks’ growth strategy. With visibility across the whole of African Parks’ Institutional Funding portfolio, currently spread across West and Central Africa as well as Southern Africa, we are seeking a dynamic individual to support and improve the organisation’s funding processes, including how funding materials are developed, and to support efforts to make processes more efficient.
The ideal candidate will be service-oriented, have strong organisational skills and excellent attention to detail, and the ability to prioritise multiple tasks successfully. As a member of AP’s Institutional Funding team, you will work independently and in close collaboration with Impact and Reporting, Finance and Park Management teams.
This role will be based in Johannesburg, South Africa or Nairobi, Kenya, and will report to the Institutional Funding Director. Successful candidates must be based in the identified locations and have a right to work in their country of residence. Competitive salary and benefits are offered.
Key Responsibilities
The Grants Management Specialist will have a range of responsibilities to include the following:
Funding Process
• Conducting the full range of activities required to prepare and coordinate the process of developing grant concept notes and proposals to funding partners, including gathering background research, reviewing business plan activities against funding opportunities and making recommendations on application strategies
• Leading the process of developing fundraising materials including capability statements, case studies, position papers and pitch decks in collaboration with internal teams including, Marketing and Communications, Conservation Development and Assurance and Community Development.
• Writing grant concept notes and proposals with emphasis on strong logical flow and hard data: The Grants Management Specialist will work with the Account Managers and Park Management Units to support proposal writing through a collaborative process.
• Support the Institutional Funding team in working with Programmatic, Functional and Operational teams (pro-actively) to identify funding and operational process gaps and develop appropriate solutions to resolve them. Reporting
• Preparing grant reports on a timely basis as outlined on the grant calendar, ensuring high quality outputs and adherence to donor compliance requirements
• Assist in maintaining the databases and dashboards used for budget management and reporting throughout the organisation using Ms Excel, Google Sheets and similar tools.
• Lead on projects to improve the accuracy and completeness of (financial) data. Project Management
• Managing complex projects, setting, and managing timelines, coordinating input from multiple teams, and ensuring error-free work, typically for 2-3 overlapping projects at any one time.
• Contributing to team-wide writing tools/systems, including headroom files, pitch menu
• Work on Special Projects related to funding, due diligence process and portfolio management. These might include research or analysis and they may be either internally or externally focused.
• Support the operation of Salesforce, our internal funding process and grants management platform. This involves responding to requests, initiating improvements, and liaising with an external contractor for more complex queries.
EXPERIENCE & SKILLS
Note: We view this section as a guide, not a checklist. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t satisfy every single bullet on this list.
The ideal candidate is aligned with African Parks’ values, espoused in the passion for Africa, its conservation areas and its people
• You have a proven track record of managing competing deadlines, and the ability to exercise good judgement prioritizing tasks
• You excel at project management; including the ability to work on several projects across multiple geographies and time zones
• You’re a great communicator; with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• You’ve got a great ability to build relationships and experience working collaboratively with staff at all levels to execute duties
• You’ve got great people skills; you possess strong interpersonal skills and consideration for team dynamics – with the goals of supporting a positive work culture.
• You’re highly comfortable and proficient with Microsoft Office suite. Familiarity with Salesforce is a plus.
• You have a desire to take ownership of new projects and responsibilities as they arise.
Required qualifications and skills:
• Hold a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Development Finance, International Relations, Development Studies, or other relevant fields of study.
• Have a minimum of five (5) years of experience in one or more of the following areas: the non-profit sector, consulting or private sector – focused on developing deep sector (subject matter) fluency and understanding external audience needs/ requirements.
• Have excellent analytical and communication skills with the ability to prepare proposals, reports, and concept papers to a high level of proficiency.
• Have previous experience with non-profit fundraising, particularly with public funding agencies.
• Possess an in-depth understanding of complex donor requirements including: US, EU, German and other public funding agencies.
• Be closely attuned to developments across the conservation landscape, with a strong understanding of emerging best practices including: Environmental and Social Safeguards, Sustainability Reporting, etc
African Parks is a non-profit conservation organisation that takes on the complete responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. We currently manage 22 national parks and protected areas in 12 countries covering over 20 million hectares in: Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan Zambia and Zimbabwe
