Fundraising Manager

Job Title: Fundraising Manager

Team: Fundraising and Programme Design (FPD)

Reporting to: Head of Fundraising and Programme Design

Direct Reports: N/A

Salary: 45-50k GBP per annum

Closing date: 27th October and 1st stage interviews week commencing 30th October

Climate Bonds Initiative Mission

Mobilise global capital for climate action

Team Mission

The Fundraising and Programme Design (FPD) team is responsible for ensuring the financial sustainability of the organisation by mobilising resources to achieve its mission. The team provides coordination, processes, tools and hands-on support for the preparation of proposals and tenders/bids, also leading in the collaborative design of cross-cutting, multi-regional, complex programmes. The team maintains oversight of relationships with funders through the donor management process. Through these efforts, the FPD team ensures that the Climate Bonds Initiative has the resources needed to achieve its goals and continue its important work.

The team provides coordination, processes, tools and hands-on support for the preparation of proposals and concepts, and also leads the facilitative design of cross-cutting, multi-regional, complex programmes. They maintain oversight of relationships with funders through the donor management process. Through these efforts, the FPD team ensures that the Climate Bonds Initiative has the resources needed to achieve its goals and continue its important work.

Job Purpose

Reporting to the Head of Fundraising and Programme Design, the Fundraising Manager plays a key role in the oversight, management, and quality control of the proposal development process, ensuring a compliant and donor-responsive fundraising strategy that meets both donor and Climate Bonds Initiative’s (Climate Bonds) internal standards and ensures the organisation’s financial sustainability. Main objectives of the role include searching and monitoring for funding sources, executing the organisation’s fundraising strategy, and mobilising grants to support the implementation of Climate Bonds Initiative's strategic objectives.

The post holder will be responsible for a portfolio of funders, owning the coordination and delivery of the entire proposal development process. This includes: collaborating with project owners to ensure identification and collection of all required submission materials, executing the timely submission of key documentation, managing the proposal approval process and relevant gateways, as well as ensuring the efficient and effective implementation of winning grant and proposal strategies.

The Fundraising Manager will furthermore monitor, appraise, and streamline the proposal development process to design and deliver efficacy and best practice improvements, and will work with the Head of Fundraising & Programme Design to develop and deliver key metrics and identify any trends that inform better decision making along the proposal development lifecycle.

The role also involves managing the coordination of internal funding requirements, communicating across the organisation to collate and maintain an accurate projects and proposals pipeline database(s), and regularly track and create a calendar of proposal due dates and timelines.

Key Relationships

• Head of Fundraising and Programme Design: Provide dashboard reporting, escalate issues and risks as needed, provide regular updates and progress reports
• Bid Leads/Project Owners: Provide hands-on support for all proposal development-related tasks including preparation of project management tools and documentation, also coordinating the necessary approval and sign-off processes and getting feedback for continual process improvement
• Finance Team: Support the development of high-level LOE and budget calculations, keep Finance team informed of pipeline status
• Head of Legal: Coordinate the review of contracts, seek advice for negotiations, design and implement tools and processes to create efficiencies in the process
• PAL team: work with PAL team to ensure that project design is aligned with existing resource capacities, and to coordinate approvals where needed; also work with PAL for continual process development and improvement
• Funders: work with key funder points of contact to ensure all proposal due diligence and other requirements are clearly understood, ensure timely and smooth communication around submission of proposals, lead negotiations where necessary, or escalate negotiations to Head of FPD or Director of Strategy and Programmes

Key Responsibilities and Duties

Business Development

• Be responsible for developing your pipeline to research and apply to lapsed and prospective Trusts, Foundations and other grant-making bodies whose objectives and interests fit with our mission.
• Work collaboratively with programme and finance colleagues to identify projects and creatively package funding opportunities to open doors to new prospects.

• Organise, lead, and follow-up on regular FPD meetings with Climate Bonds teams to discuss and compile the ongoing funding needs across the organisation, with a view to inform core and programmatic funding projections and needs by holding regular opportunities meetings.

Account Management

• Manage the stewardship of a portfolio of funders who support our work across a number of programmes, identifying relationships to pursue, cultivating prospects, making timely applications and developing and delivering tailored stewardship plans.

• Liaise with funders to communicate any delays, changes, and/or requests.
• Update and maintain the Projects and Proposals Pipeline database for recording/ tracking opportunities and proposals.
• Contribute to regular, informative, and timely dashboard reporting to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

• Build well-crafted, ‘stand-out’ grant applications and impact reports with detailed budgets and timelines that clearly demonstrate to funders the impact of their support.
• Through emotionally intelligent relationship management, keep funders engaged and excited about our work and inspire them to continue to give.

Internal Coordination

• Organizing and facilitating internal meetings to conceptualise projects.
• Manage the proposal development process, by providing guidance and coordination to Project Owners and Bid Leads to prepare all required materials and tools as needed.
• Ownership of the proposal approval processes and gateways, coordinating and ensuring that all proposals have received approval from the relevant people and that approval (or lack thereof) is communicated to Project Owners and Bid Leads in a timely manner or escalated to the Head of FPD as needed.
• Coordinate internal legal review and communicate approval to sign to relevant signatories.
• Be first port of call for assigned teams as part of FPD’s Point Person system.

• Work closely with internal stakeholders and regional teams to identify creative approaches to new and existing funders.
• Maintain excellent record-keeping to ensure accurate reporting and grant management in line with GDPR and accounting good practice.

Process Improvements and Efficiencies

• Maintain a highly organised structure and system for storing grants files on all proposal submissions and outcomes.
• Maintain quality results by using templates; following proposal-writing standards including readability, consistency, and tone; maintaining proposal support databases.
• Meeting proposal deadlines by establishing priorities and target dates for information gathering, writing, review, approval, and transmittal.
• Streamline the proposal development process to bring in efficiencies, including the development and socialisation of templates, boiler plate text, up to date CV repository, calendars, workplans, etc.
• Coordinate with internal teams (e.g., People & Culture , IT, Finance) to ensure that they are informed early in the proposal development process and are aligned with operational needs, building on lessons learned from past and on-going projects, including direct and indirect rates, resourcing and effort estimation, and facilitate a smooth handover to Project Assurance and Learning (PAL) once Grant Agreements/Contracts are in place.

Interact with funding agencies on grants (and with clients/sponsors on contracts) to help ensure proposals and relevant supporting documents are in line with their requirements and guidelines.

Requirements

Essential

• Significant experience in fundraising in NGO/non-profit settings with understanding of donor relations and proposal/bid development tools
• Experience working with foundations or corporate social responsibility programs
• Demonstrated ability to write compelling proposals and reports
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail

• Strong project management skills, attention to detail, and ability to set priorities and complete projects in a timely manner

• Superb writing and editing skills with proven ability to translate complex concepts into crisp, clear, accessible language, especially suitable for donor communications
• Enthusiastic team player with strong communication skills, able to work with cross-functional, virtual, and diverse teams
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite
• Proven experience of managing high value and complex grant proposal development and high value relationships
• Positive outlook and ability to energize teams around mission
• Effective presentation, written and speaking skills
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and commitment to Climate Bond Initiative's mission
• Demonstrated understanding of current trends in fundraising and communications, particularly around theory of change approaches, and MEL frameworks

Desirable

• Experience with grant management software or databases
• Familiarity with fundraising strategies and best practices
• Knowledge of environmental or climate-related issues and policies
• Ability to analyze and synthesize complex information
• Fluency in additional languages (French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish especially)
• Experience working in an international context
• Understanding of financial management and budgeting processes
• Advanced degree in a relevant field such as international development, environmental science, or public policy

Benefits

• Impactful responsibilities from the day you join with responsibility for your own learning curve, the role is what you make of it and the possibilities depend on you.
• Amazing opportunities for career progression and structured career development – we’ll work with you to explore your learning development and career potential

• We offer a structured and bespoke induction programme specifically suited to the team you’ll be joining and the specific role you’ll be doing. During your first few months, you’ll be given all the training you need to succeed in your role.
• Opportunity to attend a series of Lunch and Learns, delivered by internal subject matter experts and external guest speakers

• An international and diverse work atmosphere

• The chance to be part of our rapid growth and play a key role in the next exciting phase of Climate Bonds Initiative journey

• Everyone that joins us is given the opportunity to undertake our signature Green Bond training, which is recognised and certified by CPD.