Institutional Partnership Development Manager Job in Kenya

SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya

Vacancy Re-Advertisement: Institutional Partnership Development Manager

(1) Position

National Office

SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya is a member of SOS – Kinderdorf International, the largest private child welfare organization in the world.

SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya is a child-focused Non-Governmental Organization established in 1973 to provide care and support to children who have lost or are at risk of losing the care of their biological family.

The organization’s vision is “No child should grow up alone” and its programmes are driven by the mission of “building families for children in need, helping them shape their own futures and sharing in the development of their communities”.


In this regard, the organization works to reduce poverty; increase access to quality education and decent work; reduce inequalities and build strong institutions as laid out in SDGs 1, 4,8,10 and 16.

This is done through programmes that are geared towards addressing the political, economic, health and social root causes that lead to high levels of child vulnerability and put families at risk of breaking down.

The programmes focus on Alternative Care, Family Strengthening, Youth Empowerment, Education, Health Care and Advocacy.

SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya implements programmes in five (5) of Kenya’s 47 Counties namely Nairobi, Mombasa, Uasin Gishu, Kisumu and Meru.

We seek to recruit a suitably qualified person to fill the position of Institutional Partnership Development Manager.

Job Summary: Reporting to the Head of Fund Development & Communications, the Institutional Partnership Development Manager supports and leads SOS CV Kenya in the development of partnerships with institutional donors, in order to significantly increase and diversify the financial resources available for National Programs.

H/She plays a crucial role in enhancing the capacity of SOS CV Kenya’s team in grant acquisition, effective grant management, and strategic donor engagement, positioning and partnerships with major institutional donors.

H/She collaborates with the Head of Fund Development & Communications, the National Director and the Program Team to secure institutional funding for SOS CV Kenya.

H/She develops and implements institutional partnership strategies, writes concept papers, proposals and other grant application documents and is a key contributor to the growth of the funding portfolio.

H/She also manages the day to day donor relationships with bilateral donors, governmental institutions, embassies and any other relevant national or international organizations.

Fundraising and Donor Liaison

·  Proactively identify institutional partnership opportunities at the national/ local level (from bilateral, multilateral, international organizations and embassies and foundations) that match organizational priorities and donor requirements. Develop a comprehensive database of potential donors and update the same regularly to ensure clear potential funding opportunities for SOS CV Kenya based on thorough research and intelligence gathering

·  Writing expression of interests, concept notes and proposals and related applications for both grants and contracts under the strategic guidance of the HFDC. This includes: background research, stakeholder analysis, data collection & analysis, consultation processes, development of narrative proposal, coordination of grant proposal budget development and production of all associated documents to a high standard in accordance with donor requirements

·  Develop and maintain good relationships with donors by ensuring regular communication, knowledge exchange and effective reporting.

·  Working with the HFDC, be the link between SOS CV Kenya and donors especially in management of institutional funding contracts. Ensure regular communication with the SOS CV international and regional offices

Donor Contract Management

·  Prepare and submit IPD monthly updates and quarterly reports to the HFDC and regional office

·  Coordinate, monitor and assess the quality of donor reporting making sure that donor requirements are met during the project implementation, monitoring and evaluation and phase/close out

·  Responsible for Donor Contract Management (DCM) of institutional (restricted) grants, including contract preparation, development of consortium agreements, teaming agreements, monitoring of compliance with donor requirements, submission of reports.

·  Create and maintain grant records in the ProDIGI Grant management system for all institutional donor contracts.

·  Undertake routine donor contract administration for country programmes and ensure all grant files, (electronic, system and paper) are complete and kept up to date.

·  Establish a close cross-functional working relationship with the Finance, Communication and Program and other departments and provide advice to ensure synergy in donor budgeting, contract management and reporting.

Strategy, Capacity Building

·  Develop and implement an institutional fundraising and partnership strategy in line with the needs of SOS Children’s Villages Kenya and ensure this is infused within the organizational strategic plan, global IPD Strategy 3.0 and national plans

·  Ensuring Senior Management are appraised of all strategic opportunities, challenges and risks in relation to potential funding opportunities, including key relations, grants and contracts.

·  Analysing the funding environment vis á vis SOS CV Kenya’s strategy, plans and priorities, mapping key donors and identifying trends in funding and implications for SOS CV Kenya; Review and implement the recommendations of the donor market survey

·  Train and support relevant staff in Project Cycle Management and Logical Framework Approach among other models and approaches for project design and management

·  Build fundraising capacity within the programme team, by training staff on proposal development, funding trends and policies, donor relations, reporting, contract management, etc.

·  Document learning on the implementation of donor-funded grants and contracts, in order to improve understanding of donor requirements and to improve SOS CV Kenya’s overall grant performance and compliance.

Partnership Development and Networking

·  Establish and maintain regular contact with donors by organizing donor roundtables, face to face meetings, attending donor forums etc

·  Supporting the HFDC, ND and programme team to develop new and existing relationships with key donors and potential consortia partners

·  Negotiate collaboration with partner institutions and government departments in support of SOS CV Kenya subject to approval from HFDC.

·  Coordinating and facilitating consortia formation and strategic partnerships with other like-minded organizations/or local implementing partners for joint proposal development processes Coordinating capacity assessments and due diligence checks of potential local partners to be
included in proposals

·  Developing MOUs, pre-teaming agreements or other required documentation in relation to
consortium formation and partnership development.

·  Represent SOS CV Kenya in sector level meetings (development and humanitarian / emergency) and other networking forums and use this to aggressively develop funding partnerships

·  Participate in regional IPD networking and training forums and contribute to development of new
IPD strategies to improve practice

·  Developing material to help promote SOS CV Kenya amongst potential donors, partners and
key Government representatives, including briefings, capacity statements and presentations

·  Work closely with the General Secretariate in ESAF regional office and International Office in
order to ensure coordinated contact with donors.

Minimum Qualification and experience

·  Minimum Bachelor and preferably Master Degree, in the Social Sciences (social work,
psychology, social-pedagogy, community development or economics) and, additionally, a
Project Management qualification.

·  Minimum 7 years working experience in the field of Project Management for Institutional
Donor funded projects

·  He/she should have 4-7 years extensive experience in planning, securing and managing funds
from institutional donors as well as a thorough understanding of development programming.

·  A thorough understanding of program design and development especially in the sectors of
Education, Health, Livelihoods, Gender and GBV, Child Protection, Advocacy and
Emergency Preparedness and Response.

·  Experience in social science research; the candidate should have extensive experience
conducting assessments, evaluations etc.

·  A thorough understanding of Donor Contract Management, Project Cycle Management, and
training approaches is required.

Competencies – Knowledge, skills and abilities

1. Demonstrable experience in planning, resourcing, implementing, controlling, monitoring & evaluation of and reporting on projects, preferably in the social sciences arena, including donor-funded programs.

2. Ability to turn a vision into actionable goals and deliverables, including coordinating the activities of several program locations (and their networks of service providers) around these common goals.

3. Ability to challenge conventional thinking, and to influence others to develop new, innovative solutions to promote quality child care and development, including using broad cross-sector coordination to create large-scale social change.

4. Understanding of the national legislation, policies, strategies and funding mechanisms of SOS Children’s Villages Kenya in relation to child care and development.

5. Experience in partnership-building, including assessing the suitability of partners, and negotiating and formalizing Memorandums of Understanding.

6. Ability to represent the organization at the highest level, including with national bodies and agencies, NGO networks and international donors.

7. Ability to link budgets for implementing planned activities and programs, as well as understanding of financial reports for tracking budget execution.

8. Proven experience in leading a team.

9. Strong MS office skills, preferably with proficiency in using project management software.

10. Strong and highly effective communication skills in English including excellent report writing skills.

11. Willingness to travel within different the regions, as well as travel within the Sub-Saharan Africa region for experience-sharing and workshops.

12. The Candidate should have leadership, and innovation, flexible, self-drive and have the ability to work very fast and under strict deadlines.

13. Excellent interpersonal, networking and communication skills with the ability to represent SOS CV Kenya in donor forums, develop partnerships with other NGOs

14. Experience of capacity building non-funding staff in all aspects of funding and contract compliance.

Personal Attributes

1. Good planning, organizing and coordination skills with attention to detail and accuracy.

2. Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work well in a team and to communicate effectively with colleagues, partners, stakeholders and others who are not in the line of command.

3. Strong analytic and thinking skills, ability to overcome challenges.

4. Ability to manage own time and to work under high pressure.

5. Trustworthiness and confidentiality, modelling principled behaviour.

6. Commitment to address the situation the children of our target group and their families

Child Protection Policy

At all times, avoid actions or behaviour that could be construed as poor or potentially abusive practice. Whatever decisions and actions taken should be with the best interest of the child in mind.

Data Protection Policy

A loving home for every child

At all times ensure that personal data of donors, sponsors, SOS Children’s Villages Kenya beneficiaries and their families as well as co-workers is handled confidentially and in accordance with prevailing SOS-Kinderdorf International data protection laws.

How to Apply

If you believe your experience, competencies and qualifications match the job and role specifications described; send a Cover Letter & updated CV in PDF with details of 3 traceable referees one of which must be immediate former employer to recruitment@soskenya.org addressed to the Human Resources Manager to reach us on or before 27th November 2022 with the subject heading as ‘Institutional Partnership Development Manager”.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted

SOS Children’s Villages holds strict child safeguarding principles and a zero-tolerance policy for conducts of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse in the workplace and other places where the organization’s activities are rendered.

Parallel to technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring decisions will give due emphasize to assessing candidates value congruence and thorough background checks, police clearance reference check processes.

SOS Children’s Villages is an equal opportunity employer and its Recruitment Policy addresses itself to the core values of best practice, diversity and equality.