NGO JOBS

Organization: Catholic Relief Services
Country: South Sudan
Closing date: 30 May 2014

Position Title: Program Manager II- Business Development
Dept. /Location: EARO/South Sudan/Based in Juba
Position Type: Full-Time
Reports To: Country Representative

ABOUT CRS: Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

BACKGROUND: On December 15, 2013, a wave of politically-motivated violence swept across Juba, South Sudan as members of the national army (SPLA) loyal to former Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar, defected. Heavy fighting ended in Juba on December 17 but has since spread beyond the capital, particularly to parts of Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity States. What started out as a political disagreement quickly took on ethnic dimensions and devolved into fighting throughout much of the country between the country’s two largest ethnic groups – Dinka and Nuer. This current round of violence has displaced approximately 401,200 people within South Sudan and forced another 83,900 into neighbouring countries, unravelling the new nation and reversing many of the development gains made over the past two years.

South Sudan has been named an agency priority for CRS. In addition to the Country Program’s focus on emergency and development programs in South Sudan, CRS is seeking opportunities to strengthen its support for peacebuilding and reconciliation; and contribute to building an awareness in the international community and global church of the urgent need to help South Sudan transition from its current conflict and violent history.

CRS South Sudan has in recent years benefited from a Business Development Manager to support the Country Program’s growth efforts. The Country Program has a diversified program portfolio covering areas including, agriculture and livelihoods, emergency response and support to IDPs/refugees, justice and peace, and WASH, education and health. Although funding for CRS from the USG and other sources has been strong over the past few years, the Country Program is facing an increasingly competitive donor environment, and capacity to develop high-quality proposals is becoming ever more critical.

JOB SUMMARY: The Business Development Manager will lead the charge for pursuing current and future opportunities for all donors, including USAID, Global Fund, US based foundations and corporate organizations; private US-based donors; as well as non-traditional UN, national organizations and other European donors, with an emphasis on competitive mechanisms. They will lead the process of creating strategic resource acquisition plans, identifying and responding to funding opportunities, and overseeing the donor cultivation cycle. This will include monitoring the evolution of donor regulations, funding mechanisms, and application requirements to ensure the compliance and responsiveness of CRS proposals. As a member of the agency’s broader business development community of practice, they will also provide staff with information and informal training to improve their skills in proposal development, representation to donor and partner organizations, donor and partner intelligence-gathering, and marketing of CRS’ capacities to enhance our competitiveness.

PRIMARY FUNCTION: The Business Development Manager is responsible for identifying and developing new funding relations; researching appropriate future funding opportunities; serving as lead writer as appropriate and proposal development coordinator; identifying and incorporating best practices from CRS and other programs into proposals; developing and maintaining strategic alliances and/or coalitions with other organizations as they pertain to proposal development processes; and building and maintaining relationships with potential, current, and past donors.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES: Pre-positioning

• Stay abreast of trends in new business development and share those within the South Sudan team.
• Lead the CRS South Sudan internal Growth Working Group.
• Consult with the CR and HoP closely to prepare a comprehensive plan and budget for growth strategy that draws on resource persons from the CP, partners, the CRS corporate and foundations unit, Major Gift officers as well as other relevant senior regional representatives.
• Work with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate capacity for both publicly- and privately-funded food security awards, in order to provide timely information for proposal submission.
• Monitor regulatory revisions, proposal guidelines, and application requirements for priority donors together with HQ staff to ensure that new proposals adhere to them.
• Identify programming ideas and areas of technical excellence with which CRS can cultivate donor interest
• Support country program to develop appropriate and effective fundraising strategies involving donor research and intelligence, product development, marketing, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship. Marketing may include, but is not limited to, development of fact sheets on all CRS South Sudan sectoral programming initiatives in coordination with relevant staff.
• Develop/cultivate relationships with for-profit and other organizations to increase CRS’ opportunities for partnering and consortia building for funding opportunities.
• Act as CRS liaison with Corporations and Foundations unit at HQ keeping them apprised on CRS portfolio, upcoming funding needs, and any contacts made with corporations and foundations.
• Provide links to broader interagency and donor communities and coordination fora.
• Develop relationships with USAID, DFID, the UN and other public donor organizations in order to ascertain potential for new funding opportunities. Disseminate information as appropriate. Follow up leads on potential public funding from staff as well as own contacts.
• Strengthen intelligence and market research to identify potential donors and develop marketing strategy to pursue funding from non-traditional donors (Foundations, Embassies, INGOs, EU, U.N., European, Australian, Canadian and other donor agencies, World Bank etc.).
• Maintain an up-to-date Intel matrix reflecting donor priorities and upcoming opportunities.
• Subscribe to and monitor regularly electronic notices for relevant funding opportunities and monitor websites of potential donors for information on priorities, requirements and funding opportunities. Track RFA/Ps as they are published, identify those relevant to CRS programs, determine with CRS Country Representative and Head of Programs when/whether to respond.
• Explore opportunities for non-traditional resource acquisition and support the country program to develop new institutional relationships with international non-profit and for-profit organizations and other collaborators in the public funding arena.
• Develop and implement proactive capture plans for upcoming opportunities.
• Work closely with Regional Business Development Manager and the EARO Business Development Community through communication and coordination of all national and international funding opportunities and trends, detailed monthly tracking reports, capture planning and other strategies to track and influence donor strategies.
• Provide CRS South Sudan and partner staff with mentoring and training to improve their skills in growth/fundraising and proposal development for external donors. This may include, but is not limited to, facilitation of Resource Mobilization Workshops.

Pursuing Opportunities

• Work with proposal team to develop and maintain timelines reflecting respective responsibilities of team members and due dates.
• Support and guide the identification of local and international partners and negotiation of CRS’ role on proposal consortia, ensuring a competitive position for CRS that adheres to the agency’s partnership principles and strategic directions.
• Lead and coordinate processes and provide direct technical assistance to staff for timely submission of high quality concept notes and proposals that are responsive to and compliant with donor requirements and with CRS technical application and cost application standards.
• Write or edit technical narratives, produce budgets, and produce attachments, as required depending on complementary capacities of proposal development team.
• Provide specific support to proposed management and staffing plans, resource management plans, cost applications, and proposal appendices/annexes.
• Provide proposal development information to relevant regional and HQ staff to enable submission and tracking.
• Identify relevant technical assistance (in-country program staff, partner resources, RTAs, PQSD, and/or consultants) needs to design, write, and package quality proposals as per donor requirements.

Leveraging Results

• In close collaboration with the Program Units, establish and maintain a process for the program teams to incorporate the lessons learned into proposals
• Following each proposal development process, develop a process/activity that not only captures the success and challenges, but assures that they are incorporated into future programming.
• Lead the evaluation of fundraising initiatives undertaken by the country program, compile lessons learned, and make recommendations for similar efforts in the future.
• Work with program staff to develop effective targeted marketing materials including flyers, presentations, banners, etc.
• Communicate key marketing messages to donors to raise awareness of CRS’ key programming areas and the CRS brand.
• Coordinate regular donor visits with CR, HoP and/or key technical staff.

Financial Management and Compliance

• Ensure business development budget is managed according to donor requirements.
• Track budgets through development and processing of budget maintenance and tracking forms. Ensure budget review through monthly budget comparison report reviews, and realign budgets if needed. Ensure cash forecasts are sent quarterly to finance and budgets are uploaded and reviewed quarterly on e-budget.

Other

• Perform a selection of the above functions for other EARO Country Programs as time permits and the need to respond to funding opportunities arises.

AGENCY-WIDE COMPETENCIES (for all CRS Staff) These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Serves with Integrity
• Models Stewardship
• Cultivates Constructive Relationships
• Promotes Learning

PROGRAM MANAGER COMPETENCIES: These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each program manager to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Sets clear goals and manages toward them
• Collaborates effectively with staff and stakeholders
• Manages financial resources with integrity
• Applies program quality standards to project design and organizational learning

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: None

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS: Internal to CRS: Head of Programming and all program staff, particularly unit managers. Management Quality staff, particularly Head of MQ and finance manager. All Regional Technical Advisors, Business Development team, particularly Regional Business Development Specialist.
External to CRS: Officials in USAID, and other government organizations; Representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organizations; Representatives of non-traditional public donors including UN, World Bank, and others.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in international development, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Experience developing USAID, USDA, State Department, ECHO, CDC, and UN proposals and familiarity with their policies, procedures, and priorities.
• Have both contract and cooperative agreement experience
• Minimum five years of professional NGO experience, preferably CRS experience, working in a developing country managing US Government funded projects in integrated community development in two or more of the following areas: food security, livelihood, HIV/AIDS, Water and Sanitation, disaster mitigation and emergency response.
• Exceptional communication skills and superior writing ability.
• Demonstrated successful experience in project design with local partners through participatory processes.
• Strong representation skills.
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills.
• Experience with and commitment to working in a team structure.
• Strong computer skills (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) required, preferably experience with Microsoft Publisher.
• Demonstrated cost application development skills; extensive experience with proposal budgets and budget notes.
• Experience with consortium development and competitive partnership building.
• Experience with staff and partner capacity development
• Experience with working in a team structure
• Ability to represent the Agency with partners, local government, donor organizations & funding organizations, etc., as needed
• Excellent communication and interpersonal and networking skills required.

PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL SKILLS:

• Experience and proven track record of successful proposal development with USG and other donor agencies
• Listening, mediation, and facilitation skills
• Sound judgment, assertiveness, and commitment to the Agency's mission
• Self-motivated, with the ability to motivate others and coordinate a large amount of activity
• Strong organizational and planning skills
• Knowledge of CRS program quality standards, partnership principles and Catholic Social Teaching principles is preferred

DISCLAIMER CLAUSE: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

How to apply:

To apply, please visit:https://www5.apply2jobs.com/CRS/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.s...

EOE/M/F/D/V