Background

In January 2024, War Child has formed an alliance – the international body that manages War Child’s activities across the world. The War Child Alliance is a global network of child protection actors working to safeguard and educate children living with violence and armed conflict. The Alliance includes War Child organisations from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden, Children in Conflict in the US, and implementing offices in 14 conflict affected countries.

The Challenge

This role is being launched at an exciting time for War Child, following the launch of the War Child Alliance (WCA) in January 2024.

War Child Alliance is looking for an Institutional Funding Strategic Partnerships Senior Team Lead. A critical position that contributes to the success of the WCA by developing and managing relationships and strategic partnerships with institutional donors and other partners, securing increased institutional funding to support the financial sustainability of the organization and enable War Child to fulfill its mission to have a direct positive impact on the well-being of children affected by conflict. The role requires a high level of initiative, innovation, leadership and problem-solving skills, and has both internal and external impact on the WCA’s operations and reputation.

The role coordinates and supports institutional funding account management across WCA, working with fundraising members, global, regional and country programmes, while being directly responsible for prospecting, developing and managing global relationships with those institutional donors that are managed by the WCA Foundation. This includes most multilateral donors, as well as bilateral donors from countries where there are no War Child fundraising members, and it oversees exploration and development of new donor markets.

Team

The role reports to the Head of Institutional Funding and Grants Delivery and it coordinates and collaborates closely with other colleagues within the Institutional Funding and Grants Delivery (IFGD) team, country, regional and global programme teams, other relevant departments, and with counterparts within War Child’s fundraising members. The role supervises at least one other role that supports IF account management and new market development.

The IFGD team is part of the larger Programme Implementation and Institutional Funding (PIIF) department of the WCA Foundation. Through collaboration with WCA fundraising members, global, regional and country teams, the IFGD team leads overall strategy and policy and quality assurance standards for grant cycle management across the WCA and coordinates the strengthening of internal competencies and capacities to acquire and manage institutional funds in-line with policies and quality assurance standards. In addition to this, the team coordinates global level account management with WCA fundraising members and grant management in collaboration with teams at country, regional and global levels.

The IFGD team is responsible for achieving the organisation’s ambitions through effective engagement and partnership building with institutional donors, trusts, foundations, and other strategic partners. It is directly responsible for raising and managing funds from institutional donors and foundations where there is no WCA fundraising member, exploring and developing new fundraising markets, and supporting WCA fundraising members in raising and managing funds from their respective national donors.

The IFGD team consists of strategic partnerships, quality assurance, process improvement, and proposal development specialists.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate and support institutional funding account management across the WCA, working with fundraising members, global, regional and country programmes, so that there are coherent plans for funding growth
• Contribute to the development of annual plans for institutional funding and grants delivery across the WCA and within this, coordinate the development of plans and targets for institutional funding account management
• Coordinate the development and implementation of institutional donor funding strategies and engagement plans per donor account
• Lead and coordinate pro-active acquisition, sharing of institutional donor intelligence, networking, and strategic engagement and positioning with donors among WCA donor account managers
• Provide expert advice and support internal capacity-building efforts regarding donor engagement, networking, business development, proposal development and submission, contract management and reporting
• Directly responsible for prospecting, developing and managing global relationships with those institutional donors that are managed by the WCA Foundation (including most multilateral donors and bilateral donors for countries in which there is no fundraising member), in order to achieve funding growth from these donors
• Work with global, regional and country programmes to pursue funding opportunities, implement fundraising activities, monitor and report on their progress and results
• Oversee exploration and development of new and emerging donor markets, in order to support growth and diversification of institutional funding
• Work with fundraising members, country, regional and global teams to identify and prioritise new and emerging institutional funding markets
• Oversee implementation of and progress reporting on donor diversification plans
• Proactively position WCAF as a partner of choice and lead development and maintenance of large-scale and high value strategic IF partnerships to support global-level scaling, as well as country-based programming as key components of WCA’s global strategy:
• Provide vision and strategic advice on partnerships and policy-influencing opportunities
• Represent War Child by engaging externally with potential partners, stakeholders and in appropriate sector forums to strengthen their knowledge and interest in War Child’s programmes and its value proposition
• Team leadership and management: As the senior team lead for IF strategic partnerships within the WCA, provide leadership of this function across the WCA, directly manage a small team, and contribute to overall leadership and management of the IFGD team:
• Support the Head of IFGD to lead and manage the IFGD team and broader function across the WCA, including contributing to team leadership, planning, progress review and to effective coordination with other teams across the WCA.

Your Profile

• Demonstrated strategic partnership and institutional donor account management expertise
• Demonstrated expertise in institutional funding strategy development and its operationalisation
• At least 5 years’ experience in grant cycle management, donor account management, and developing high value strategic partnerships in an international organisation
• Good knowledge of and experience in fundraising for NGOs from major institutional donors, such as such as with EC, ECHO, UN, USAID, NL/MFA, UK/FCDO, etc
• At least 3 years’ experience of managing, overseeing or delivering international development and/or humanitarian programmes in developing and/or conflict-affected countries
• Significant experience of successful external engagement and relationship management with institutional donors and/or partners
• Experience in team management and of strengthening the capacity and training of others
• The ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organization, and to spot and create opportunities with institutional donors and partners effectively and facilitate increasing access to funding and partnrerships
• Ability to analyse the donor environment and identify trends, anticipate changes, be comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, and preferably at least one of the following languages: Dutch, French, Arabic and/or Spanish
• Good relation building, networking and diplomatic skills
• Excellent facilitation and organisational skills
• A Bachelors’ degree, and preferably a Masters’ level degree, in a field relevant to the role, development/ international cooperation, and/or humanitarian aid.

Our Offer

• An employment contract with one of the offices where War Child is based
• The following offer is based on a Dutch employment contract, actually conditions depend on the local office
• Salary range from € 4108 – € 5197 gross per month, based on 40 hours per week (the exact step determined by the years of relevant working experience).
• 28 vacation days on full time basis (consisting of 26 vacation days plus 2 additional fixed free days, based on 40 hours work week).
• A pension scheme fully paid by War Child.
• Compensation for travel and work from home costs.
• Laptop to work from any location and monthly mobile phone contribution of € 25.
• Possibility to follow training and/or courses where relevant.
• Pleasant working conditions, good atmosphere, great colleagues and of course the meaningful purpose of our work!

Our Organisation

War Child is a young and dynamic organisation. We try to keep an informal ambiance within our office, with a lot of room for creativity, inspiration and self-initiative from employees. We practice what we preach: dynamic, innovative, integrity focused and a drive to reach the highest possible results against the lowest possible costs. War Child offers a challenging job in an inspiring workplace in Amsterdam.