Grants Acquisition Manager

WORK CONTEXT / BACKGROUND:   The position is located in World Vision Lebanon National Office. As per National office strategy, World Vision Lebanon (WVL) strives to ensure diversification of its funding streams by ensuring that programming staff have capacities to support resource acquisition and programme effectiveness while improving relationships and networking with major donors. WVL aims to supplement child sponsorship funding with funding from institutional and private non-sponsorship donors. Therefore, to support this strategy of resource diversification, WVL will be establishing a grant acquisition unit. The purpose of this unit is to coordinate the internal proposal development process and pro-actively pursuing new external funding opportunities. The unit ensures donor requirements and expectations are met during the implementation process.   PURPOSE OF POSITION:   To provide leadership in developing strategy for resource diversification of World Vision Lebanon.  To position WVL for acquiring and managing grants, private funds, etc and meeting donors’ requirements and WV’s accountability standards. This role aims to the overall quality improvement and grants growth mechanisms of the WV Lebanon. This role is responsible to generate grant income for WV Lebanon by working with a selected group of Technical Experts and SOs to engage donors at strategic level, build relationships with donors/ embassies, lead the proposal development process, and build strategic capacity in grant acquisition and management.       MAJOR TASKS:   I.             Resource diversification Strategy Development In coordination with the Operations Director develop the annual growth plan in line with the country strategy Lead the development and roll out of a Grants Acquisition and Management  (GAM) strategy or plan.   II.            Donors’ engagement Develop Donor engagement strategies according to NO strategy and with participation of technical and programme teams Engage donors at strategic level Lead the process and provide direction in the development of individual donor relations.   III.          Internal and external liaison Ensure consistent and professional engagement with support offices in identifying opportunities for acquiring grants and private funds. Liaise with donors and other stakeholders & engage in the process of preparing well written project proposals to secure funding. Position WVL as a “preferred partner”. Coordinate with MEER Resource Development Unit for grant lessons learned, improving WV’s grants standards, donor SO liaisons as well as for potential Cross Border and Multi-Country applications    IV.   Resource Acquisition & Grant Management Lead the proposal development process for Pre-proposal, Proposal development, Post-submission. Ensure smooth coordination of all proposal development efforts at the local, national and Regional levels Oversee the research process and the development process of new proposals in close coordination with related staff members in order to ensure high quality proposals that meet the requirements of the donors. Ensure that GAM systems are in place to support effective grant compliance and positive audit results, and that the grant team and NO staff understand this system and follow it accordingly Establish grant steering committee at NO level and ensure effective systems and timely communication are in place to support the ND,LT and other key stakeholders to understand the status of the grant pipeline and fundraising efforts. Lead the “Go / No-go” decision making process and ensure that all risks are addressed consistently. Liaise with RDU for RO approval request of the Risk Assessment for grants. Research and draft resources in preparation for grant bidding activities, such as capability statements, project summaries, partner profiles, etc.; Apply timely project management methodologies and approaches to the bid preparation process to ensure effective and efficient teamwork, and a quality output.  This will include acting as the project lead/manager for selected application responses, managing the initiation, development, and submission of proposals in conjunction with internal WV SOs team members and National Office/other partners. In cooperation with SOs, manage grant contract review meetings and follow-up on agreed items as well as grant start-up meetings with all key stakeholders. Make sure that all grant stakeholders (Project and NO level, DME, SO) are supplied with final project documentation including approved grant contract, and understand their duty under the grant. Make sure all data entry at Horizon for Grants is complete and regularly up-dated and cooperate with the SOs for grants to which they are signatory Establish grant compliance mechanism and ensure all involved staff from operations and finance departments are aware of the reporting milestones, understood donors reporting template. Support the (semi) annual reporting process, in close cooperation with all the stakeholders who are part of the grant (project) implementation Work with the finance team to monitor grant compliance and, ensure WV Lebanon responds professionally to all compliance and audit issues, follow up on audit findings and follow up on evaluation findings and recommendations. Ensure timely recruitment of external grant auditors is organized and grant appropriate ToR is design in cooperation with finance department. Regularly call for grant compliance team meetings with finance and project staff for discussion on the current grant achievements, keeping to agreed milestones, analysis for needs for change and donor request for changes. Lead donor communication regarding changes and wavers in cooperation with SOs Create & roll out a grant management system to track all the proposals developed, awarded, reasons “why not awarded” for lessons learned, and grants implemented Lead the development of GAM performance metrics analysis, a grant compliance tracking system, and Horizon entries, project master-files and archiving.   V. Capacity Building Support selected technical staff so that they have enough capacity/necessary skills to engage with donor, manage projects and fundraise. Provide technical support in the development of a project proposal. Liaise with SO and GTRN for proposals quality improvement, lessons learned and WV’s policies are acknowledge in designs Support the NO to develop a strong understanding of donor guidelines and procedures, in particular, eligibility, strategy and assessment processes to ensure donor compliance and alignment; Self-educate on WV’s grant processes e.g. Grant minimum standards and Proposal Pro online tool, and build GAM capacity of/ transfer knowledge to technical staff and Zonal /ADP leadership to Grow grant income and strengthen GAM processes, Represent and negotiate with external stakeholders, Ensure appropriate systems are in place to sustain GAM.   VI. Financial management: Support each grant manager to monitor the allocation of resources in the most efficient and cost effective way while aiming for the highest quality of implementation. Support each grant manager to monitor on (bi or monthly basis) actual expenditures and compare them with the implementation model, budget requirements, review the budget if needed with the Finance team and other stakeholders who are implementing the project.     EDUCATION / SKILLS REQUIREMENTS:             Education             Post graduate university degree in social sciences or equivalent MA degree             Knowledge and Skills Knowledge of programme design, Monitoring, and evaluation Strong command of English (Written and oral) Competent in using Microsoft office computer programs Strong negotiation and representational skills Ability to coach grant project managers Knowledge of several donors regulations such USAID and EU Has Cross cultural sensitivity     Experience 5 years relevant experience, specifically in writing winning proposals Experience in project management 5 years experience in resource acquisition Experience in design a local fundraising strategy         Qualified candidates are requested to send their CV to the following fax number or e-mail address: Fax number: 00 961 4 401982 E-mail address:          cv@worldvision.org.lb (Kindly state the title of the vacancy in the subject.)