Grant Manager - World Vision

Purpose of the position:

This is a new and exciting role, to provide additional leadership and management to support the growth in World Vision grant-making and management and reports to the Resource Acquisition Management Manager. The Grants Manager role is a key position within the Resource Acquisition and Management unit at World Vision Ghana. It involves building strong relationships with donors, Support Offices, grant staff, project implementation partners to ensure donor retention.

The position is instrumental in overseeing proposal development, grant compliance, timely donor reporting by ensuring effective channels of internal and external communications relating to grants are established and respected. The Grants Manager will also line manage Grant Project Managers and contribute to the implementation of World Vision Ghana's resource development strategy, while enhancing the capacity of grants staff.

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Resource Acquisition

• Identify, market opportunities and monitor donor trends for growing grant funding from governments, multilaterals, Corporates, Foundations/Trusts.
• Provide day to day support to ensure timely and efficient support for prepositioning, proposal development and effective issue resolution in grant performance across National Office/Support Office as needed
• Initiate and coordinate under the supervision of the Resource Acquisition Manager and in concert with the Technical Leads and the Head of Programmes and other relevant functional units, a framework for effective resource acquisition and management, and partnerships to achieve strategic and programmatic objectives per country strategy
• Build positive working relationships with other teams in the National Office to coordinate and support development of high-quality proposals using relevant Grant Management tools and guidance eg (Go/ No-go checklist, capture planning, proposal development calendar, procurement plan, internal budgeting tool)
• Work closely with Budget Holders, programme, and finance teams as well as other stakeholders to compile accurate proposal budget and assess whether all necessary costs have been included. 
• Participate in donor engagements/conferences, meetings and contribute ideation sessions
• Support the Resource Acquisition and Management team in all aspects of the team’s work as required

Grant Agreement

• Review donor contracts, flag any points that runs contrary to World Vision Ghana’s procedures, and support contract negotiations;
• Work with finance team to support/advise them in development of internal budgeting tool and communication with Grant project teams on allocated budget;
• Coordinate with respective budget holders and finance in order to ensure budgets are correctly allocated and aligned;

Donor Care

• Developing and maintaining good relationships with Donors and Support Offices in order to provide an excellent, quality donor service and donor care leading to donor retention and securing new grants
• Overseeing and ensuring high quality donor relationships for which the Grants and Donor Care staff are the key relationship managers
• Identifying and supporting events which showcase World Vision Ghana’s work and impact and encouraging donors to invest in the organisations work
• Provide technical support to grants teams to ensure good practices in Partnership and Donor management

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Leadership and staff management

• Leading, managing and developing a strong grant team where individuals are working to clear outcomes which are in line with the vision, mission and values of World vision, donors and sponsors
• Line managing Grants Project Managers, providing support and supervision to grant staff, monitoring their performance and ensuring they meet individual and team Key Performance Indicators
• Coordinate the day-to-day operations of the Grants team and grant projects, processes and budget in particular reviewing the grant process and implementing improvements to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.
• Identifying and developing innovative and creative grant-making opportunities, particularly to ensure more effective engagement with donors
• Be familiar with all World Vision organizational and donor portfolio compliance requirements and ensure high-quality management of grants through meeting of KPIs and deadlines.

Donor Reporting, Monitoring & Compliance

• Support Project Managers understanding and adherence to donors’ regulations and compliance requirements by ensuring comprehensive, detailed, and inclusive project start-up and close–up processes within an acceptable period of the grant being activated and deactivated.
• Together with the Grants Project Managers, summarise in writing, key reporting and compliance requirements (compliance checklist) including potential issues for Grant Catch-up Meetings; 
• Support and advise programme colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio;
• Work with other departments (i.e. programmes, finance, M&E, Supply Chain & P&C) to ensure all documentation required are kept appropriate systems/files and is ready and available for audits (e.g. vouchers, distribution lists)
• Support the Grants Teams to ensure correct and up-to-date maintenance of Grants Funding Tracker.
• Coordinate the finalisation of donor reports ensuring consistency between narrative and financial reports and that they meet quality standards 
• Highlight critical financial issues such as under/over spends to finance and Budget Holders, and follow up in writing when discussed verbally
• Monitor grant payment schedules and income requests for respective portfolio, working closely with finance to ensure this is done in a timely manner
• Ensure collaborative process across multiple stakeholders to plan for project, improve project governance through compliance, start-up and planning meetings
• Ensure Staff recruitment and grants induction training done on timely basis

Policy, Knowledge, Learning & Capacity Building

• In collaboration with the Grants Marketing and Communications Specialist, contribute to the development of country factsheets and other relevant information pieces for donor visits/meetings.
• Develop WVG projects portfolio showing project results/best practices for presentation at Donor Conferences and other Project Events.
• Identifying policy issues arising from applications and delivery of grants, and liaise with the RAM Manager on how these may influence the direction of grant-making and the wider policy work of World Vision Ghana
• Identifying opportunities for personal development and learning for Grant project teams
• Identifying capacity gaps and supporting the training and mentoring of PNS and Grant staff, to improve their skills in proposal development, external engagement, positioning and marketing, reporting and Management/donor compliance as required.

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Field-level monitoring & other responsibilities

• Participate in field-level review meetings, visit field project sites, and provide hands-on support to project implementation teams as needed       
• Prepare monthly reports on the status and results of project implementation
• Ensure the values of participation, partnership, sustainability, social responsibility, cost-effectiveness, transparency and accountability are reflected in your work.
• Perform other duties as required by the Resource Acquisition and Management Manager.

Essential Qualifications:  Education / Knowledge / technical skills and experience

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Project Management, Development Studies/ or related discipline
• 5-year hands-on experience in writing and managing proposals for corporate partners and other donors in the context of an international agency; a track record of successful proposals
• Responsibility for line managing staff plus leading, supporting and developing a high performing team.
• Managing Grant teams to deliver a high-quality result

• Extensive practical experience of at least five years in programme risk-based auditing;
• Experience working in complex/ insecure environments and with displaced populations; 
• Good understanding of donor rules and regulations
• Proven skills and experience in report and proposal development and working with multiple donors;
• Good personal organisational skills, including time management, and ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Staff capacity-building experience;
• Willingness to travel to field offices and work in difficult environment according to travel requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with others in and outside his or her own team

Preferred/desirable skills and experience

• A strategic and creative thinker with proven experience of working on diverse and wide-ranging projects in different geographic contexts
• Experience of developing and managing strong and complex relationships across programmes as part of a centralised function and externally with multiple stakeholders.
• Experience of working in international development
• Good communication and interpersonal skills;
• Strong organisational and team working skills;
• Good cultural awareness and sensitivity;
• Ability and willingness to work/live and be mobile under difficult circumstances; 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; 
• Knowledge of the NGO operations and the dynamics of the humanitarian sector;
• Above average computer skills, particularly in Microsoft Windows Word and Excel;

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Other competencies/attributes:

• Willingness to learn and demonstrable investment in professional growth
• Must be a committed Christian, able to stand above denominational diversity
• The ability to multi-task in a complex and demanding environment
• Strong attention to detail, and excellent time management skills Good administrative, planning, analytical and written skills

Working environment/conditions:

• Domestic Travel:  minimum 50% regular local travel
• On-call:  10% In emergency and disaster situations, the position will be required to be on call.
• There is an expectation that there will be occasional out-of-hours travel and external/internal event