Institutional Relations Manager

ZOA, as an international NGO, supports people who have lost everything due to armed conflict or natural disaster. Together, we can come to their aid in emergencies and remain faithful to communities as they recover – providing new opportunities for them to help themselves again. The work of ZOA is coordinated from our office in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. We are active in Africa, South America, the Middle East region, and Asia. We work with approximately 900 employees worldwide and with (local) partners.

Are you looking for an opportunity to join our mission and do you have experience working with institutional donors? We invite you to join our team of committed colleagues as our new

Institutional Relations Manager

(the Netherlands, Apeldoorn, 32-40 hours)

Team and position

The Institutional Relations (IR) team is pivotal to ZOA’s mission as 70-80% of our funding comes from institutional donors, such as ECHO, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, USAID, INTPA and UN agencies. Consequently, it is essential for ZOA to nurture and enhance positive relationships with all major institutional donors. Our focus is on consistently submitting strategic proposals that clearly demonstrate ZOA’s expertise and distinctive approach in each country and context. This effort is crucial in sustaining and expanding our global impact.

Together with your 4 IR colleagues you are responsible for identifying and creating funding opportunities with global institutional donors. You also support our country teams with their institutional fundraising. An important part of our work is collaborating both with colleagues in the country offices and within HQ (programmatic, finance, and communications), working together and coordinating the proposal development process.

In this strategic position your focus is on optimizing access to opportunities for institutional funding, both short- and long-term. This means you are responsible for:

1.Initiating and fostering successful and sustainable relations with institutional donors, international foundations and other stakeholders by:

• Expanding our donor portfolio through research, networking, and by presenting ZOA to potential donors;
• Managing relations with a group of institutional donors.
• Responsible for frequent communication with institutional donors on behalf of ZOA HQ and/or ZOA country teams;
• Representing ZOA in forums and other groups;
• Being a sparring partner and internal info desk for colleagues worldwide.

2. Contributing to knowledge and capacity of staff globally in acquiring, using, and reporting on institutional funding by:

• Detecting funding opportunities and actively informing local and HQ programme management;
• Becoming an ‘expert’ on your group of donors by collecting and distributing knowledge of and experiences with the methodology and specific “rules and regulations” of donors;
• Assisting or leading in proposal development, collaborating with country staff, also on-site;
• Assisting in developing country donor strategies, including local institutional donors, and joint donor visits.

3. Contributing to ensuring donor compliance of proposals and reporting, as well as assisting the internal system of quality control and improvement related to donor requirements and procedures.

“I am looking for a team player, who can represent ZOA externally, connect internally to present our story, and can support our country offices with their institutional fundraising. Someone who sees the details, while maintaining a ‘big-picture’ overview.”

Joanne van der Schee, Head Institutional Relations Unit.

Your profile

Being successful as our new Institutional Relations Manager means that you:

• Fully support the vision, mission and Christian identity of ZOA;
• Are intrinsically motivated and driven to serve our target group;
• Are a strategic, conceptual thinker, results oriented, and know how to prioritize and follow through;
• Take initiative, are sociable and able to initiate and strengthen relationships, also in a group setting;
• Have strong communication and representation skills resulting in effective external representation and strong internal collaboration;
• Are able and willing to travel internationally several times per year;
• Have excellent command of English; conversational command of Dutch is appreciated, not essential;
• Have a university degree and several years experience working with institutional donors.

We offer

Working with ZOA as Institutional Relations Manager means:

• A challenging position with the opportunity to impact our work globally;
• The opportunity to work with colleagues from all over the world and by visiting our programmes witness first-hand the impact of our work;
• An international work environment with a continuous focus on and desire to improve and innovate;
• Ability to work from home with flexible working hours;
• A one-year contract with the intention of an open-ended contract;
• An attractive salary of € 3.782,- to € 5.394,- (gross, based on full-time, 40 hours) and good benefits, including a 13th month, 29 leave days, and a good pension plan.