Globaldev careers: The grant manager

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Amy Kirk’s role as a grant manager would have involved a lot more traveling to meet with colleagues as far away as the Philippines or Sri Lanka, connecting and working together in person. Being able to see what grant recipients were doing and the impact of their work was always incredible and helped her feel connected to the work, Kirk said. But these days, with the travel restrictions being part and parcel of the pandemic, she’s still building relations — even if virtual — with her colleagues, though this can entail a “bizarre schedule” with team calls at both the beginning and end of the day. Kirk, who transitioned from a career in architecture, started out as a grants specialist with Tetra Tech over eight years ago and now supports one of its U.S. Agency for International Development programs: Clean Cities, Blue Ocean. Speaking to Devex, she shared her advice for other professionals looking to make a career switch into development. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What is the job of a grant manager? My experience as a grant manager has always been from implementing USAID contracts. USAID will give a contract and have a plug figure for grants, so my role has always been more on the issuance of grants under contract. There's always a budget set aside, specifically for those grants, and that's intended to help with the achievement of that contract’s objectives or the project goals. There are grant managers out there who are the recipients of grants and manage [them] that way, [but] I'm on the other side of issuing and managing the grants from the donor on their behalf. I work very closely with our grant specialists in the various countries that we work in. They are the ones that are working very closely with our grantee organizations, so I'm really the support for the people who are doing the work. A grant manager is really like a project manager; it's just a bunch of tiny little projects under the umbrella of a larger project. It's a really facilitative role. “If you're passionate about seeing a positive difference in the world and you have some curiosity and creativity, it's a really exciting position.” --— Amy Kirk, grant manager, Tetra Tech Often, you're managing a whole bunch of grants at once. We take grants through the whole project management life cycle of designing the technical scope … to putting out a solicitation, receiving applications, reviewing those, selecting [organizations], doing the negotiation process, and then coming to the final grant which you get USAID approval for. … Then obviously [there’s] the full management of a grant and tracking the financial progress, the technical progress, reporting on indicators. So often you are managing different grants in different stages. How did you end up in this role? I had previously been in the field of architecture, and I did that for a number of years [after] my undergrad in architecture. [But] I always came back to development. It was always something that was in my mind. I think a lot of it came from my experience as a kid living abroad with my family. We lived in Mexico and Peru, and I would say we did not have the typical expat experience. … We were pretty fully integrated into those communities. I remember seeing kids my age begging on the streets, and it was really profound because I didn't understand the difference: Why was this kid begging on the street, and I had everything that I needed? I think that has always come back to me, and over time it's just become clear that it comes down to the opportunities and the systems that we're born into. I was born with a lot of opportunity and privilege. … And I have the opportunity now to work in a field where, presumably, we can minimize that opportunity gap or some of the system gaps that exist around the world. What skills or experience helped you make that transition from architecture to development? I went back and got my master's in international development. … And I had started working for a mining company in corporate social responsibility. Then I got this job with Tetra Tech, [and] I feel grateful to the woman who hired me [because] I think she took a chance. It doesn't seem like a natural transition, but there are a lot of similarities [in the skills used]. There's a lot of creativity, a lot of client management]. A lot of times [for example] your client may not have the full detail or the scope, and it's your job to really help bring in that detail. What kind of career opportunities are there in grant management work? I am only typically looking for grant specialists, so there's certainly — within the USAID realm — always a search for good grant managers or good grant specialists. When I'm reviewing CVs, I'm not necessarily looking for somebody who has grant management experience [though]; it's [more about] project management, time management, somebody who is willing to get into the nitty-gritty. It's much less important to have specific USAID regulation experience [and more about] the fundamentals of project management. From there, because you can gain so much experience in just broad project management, there's opportunities to move into more standard project management roles, [such as] USAID’s deputy-chief-of-party role. What are the main challenges of the job, and what lessons have you learned to help you overcome these? I would say starting with no expectations and really needing to just clearly communicate what the roles are of a grant manager. Oftentimes we get pulled into the technical side more, which is not our job, so drawing those clear boundaries of what you can and can't do is a challenge. Because the grant manager is managing so many different functions of a single grant, it sometimes becomes [about] managing other people's time too, which also is not great. Again, being really clear and communicating in advance what it is that you expect from your teammates and what it is that you expect from the recipient organization of the grant [are important]. And just trying to identify issues as you see them creeping up, [as] they tend to be the same ones over and over. What skills have you focused on or have been most valuable to your professional growth? Project management skills, generally speaking: time management, budget management, relationship management. I think also just setting clear boundaries of what my job is and not getting pulled into tasks that might belong to somebody else … so, advocating for myself and for others too. Obviously, we all need to be teammates and pitch in where needed, but I think it's also really important, especially for females, to take on the position that their title says they're being paid for. Compliance [skills are important]. Whether it’s with USAID or another donor, there will always be regulations associated with how money can be spent. Grant managers need to consistently be aware of these regulatory parameters to ensure the use of donor funds is in full compliance. [And the] ability to ask hard questions and be firm while building relationships with your partner organizations is important, it is also crucial to ask lots of questions and know when you need to be firm in a decision, particularly as it relates to compliance with donor requirements. How have you seen your role change in recent years as the sector has changed? There's been an increasing push for local solutions, building local capacity, [and an] emphasis that organizations and people in the country are the solution themselves and we're just facilitators. I think that's the right approach. I often think if I were in the position of ... the target beneficiaries and somebody is coming to my door to do a focus group discussion or enroll me in some training, what would that experience feel like? I think it's really important to continue to put ourselves in that position and be curious [what the] experience is like for the people that we are trying to help and not assuming that we know what the right answer is or what the solution is. Putting that power into the hands of the people that it's meant to benefit is a shift [that] has been happening over time, and I think that's been exciting to see. There's more of an emphasis now on user-centered design or human-centered design. [So in my work] it could be a lot of the grants that we're structuring now are two phases, where you are spending the first part of the grant just doing research to uncover what exists and what may or may not work and then, in the next phase, testing it out, doing kind of a pilot test to see if it works or if it doesn't. [There’s more of a focus on] taking a step back and asking a lot of questions in advance to then lead you to some ideas that you can test, instead of the reverse. What should someone know before working in this type of role? It's a role that I would say certainly is not for the lighthearted. It is very intense sometimes. It requires a lot of project management, attention to detail, ability to multitask. But I feel like if you're passionate about seeing a positive difference in the world and you have some curiosity and creativity, it's a really exciting position. It really is a role that rewards you with endless learning and opportunity because [for example] I would consider myself a generalist — [as] I don't have a technical focus — [but the role] has allowed me to participate and be a part of programs across all different sectors and learn about [those]. Aside from project management, what other skills would you look for when hiring for your team? The ability to communicate with different audiences. [You might be] dealing with your clients [such as] USAID, or you're dealing with colleagues, or with local organizations that may have varying degrees of capacity, and so you really have to be able to shift and be able to communicate with different audiences. A level of humility also [is important]. ... That comes back to the curiosity [part] and taking a step back and asking a lot of questions. Critical thinking, too, [because] development is never a one-size-fits-all. It's never linear. When I interview for [my team] it's not all personality — certainly you need to have some project management skills — but I think something that’s really important [is the way] you approach other people.