PROGRAMME ASSISTANT: INSTITUTIONAL FUNDRAISING

Department: Business Development Team
Key Relationships: Fundraising and Development Officer, Program officers from regional offices and programs and operational teams (finance and projects teams)
Reporting to: Head of Fundraising and Development
Location: London, UK or Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Contract: Permanent
Salary: Circa £34,000 per annum

ABOUT US

Established in 1987, ARTICLE 19 is an international think-do organisation that defends freedom of expression and the right to information all over the world, fighting against censorship, defending dissenting voices and advocating against law and practices that silence.

In our digital era, our MISSION is to propel the freedom of expression movement locally and globally to ensure all people realise the power of their voices. With regional offices around the world, ARTICLE 19 combines experience in global policy making with vital support to national processes of good governance and progressive reforms, which place the organization closer to the on-the-ground battles to protect freedom of expression and information. We believe that the most effective way to promote and implement institutional, cultural and legal change is to work both at international and national level, leveraging local experience and knowledge to inform standard setting in key international/regional decision-making fora and processes and to hold states accountable, while ensuring that progress at global level have relevance to create enabling environments for the exercise of expression rights at national level.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Working within the Business Development Team, you will provide essential assistance and lead the development of winning proposals through strategic messaging, ensuring we’re articulating the best story and value to donors, while complying with essential requirements. You will focus on institutional fundraising, providing operational and administrative support to develop winning proposals for highly technical donors, including the European Commission or US Department of State, while leading the writing of less complex but equally essential bids for private foundations such as the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and the National Endowment for Democracy, as well as embassies and others.

This position is suited to someone looking to use their project administration skills and deepen their fundraising and programme knowledge. You are a committed team member with a clear focus on team objectives, as well as your own. You will promote best practice within the proposal development process and will challenge ways of working to ensure the highest quality and levels of efficiency.

We are looking for a creative, outgoing, out-of-the-box thinker with excellent skills in writing and editing, good time management, some experience updating knowledgebase systems and ability to meet multiple deadlines.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Tracking – Remain aware of upcoming bid opportunities for key donors, compile tracking information in the “Digest” and regularly share it across the organisation

• Communication – Participate and play an active role in proposal development meetings, coordinating with relevant staff all application activities and developing bid plans

• Support development of complex proposals – Provide the Business Development Team with support to develop highly technical and complex proposals for institutional and governmental funders. This includes: coordinating the production of supporting documentation; writing specific sections; collecting costs; proofreading, editing, or reviewing technical proposals and budgets

• Proposal strategy and writing – With limited supervision or guidance, help regional offices and program teams identify winning project ideas for less complex bidding processes by understanding the donors’ priorities and writing quality proposals that meet the funder’s requirements

• Manage final submission – review and understand all bid documents to ensure the donor requirements are reflected in the bid, and it matches the evaluation criteria

• Follow up – Duly and timely answer any request for clarification from donors after submission, or support regional and program teams to do so; ensure prompt acknowledgement of grants awarded and develop project summary sheet or compile and share donors’ feedback to continue learning and improving

• Systems support and knowledge management – Support the team to keep fundraising systems and data up to date including
– Update ARTICLE 19’s projects in the pipeline database on a regular basis
– Ensure donor and partners contacts are accurately recorded on our database
– Review, update and provide admin docs to donors/partners and colleagues as requested
– Keep a calendar and support the update of key donors’ online platforms/systems
– Develop and update description of ARTICLE 19’s experience in general and specific themes in particular through “capacity statements” or case studies
– Support the team to manage team folders and resources
– Develop and/or update project summary sheets for awarded grants

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive, and that you may undertake other duties commensurate with the role as may reasonably be assigned by or suggested to the Head of Business Development.

**PERSON SPECIFICATION

ESSENTIAL

Education and Knowledge**

• Qualification (graduate or postgraduate degree) in international development, international business, human rights, communications, or related technical field of expertise

Experience

• Relevant experience in supporting a team.
• At least 1 years of work experience in proposal writing and winning project ideas and proposal writing
• Some experience accessing funds from government or other donors.

Skills and abilities

• Excellent inter-personal skills and ability to relate with diverse people from different cultures.
• Strong organisation, time management and coordination skills
• Flexibility to work in a dynamic environment and to multi-task.
• Strong Excel skills and numeracy and budgeting skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Excellent computer skills, particularly MS Office package (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint) and some experience of using Information management systems and databases.
• Ability to communicate effectively in English with outstanding writing skills.
• Approachable, flexible and supportive.
• Able to work well under pressure and meet multiple deadlines.
• Demonstrates commitment to high performance and holds self, team members and others to account
• Pro-active work approach & initiative-taking, high attention to detail, process-oriented working style and ability to handle overlapping deadlines
• Inspires genuine enthusiasm and passion in others
• Able to facilitate a high level of collaboration between multiple stakeholders

Other requirements
• Must have the right to work in the United Kingdom or the Netherlands

DESIRABLE

• Understanding of project funding mechanisms and procedures
• Knowledge of human rights and/or key freedom of expression issues
• Experience of working in an international organisation.
• Experience of cross-team and long-distance working
• Language skills in at least one of the other ARTICLE 19’s languages, i.e. French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Dutch
• Experience of working in countries/regions where ARTICLE 19 works
• Develop innovative and creative proposal presentations/templates to increase our likelihood of winning proposals