Director of Partnerships
- Employer
- Segal Family Foundation
- Location
- New Jersey, United States
- Salary
- $130,000.00 - $150,000.00
- Closing date
- Oct 7, 2022
View more
- Position Type
- Fundraising, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Donor Relations, Prospect Research, Other Fundraising
- Fields
- Advocacy, Community Development, Other Fields, Philanthropic Advisors
- Employment Type
- Full Time
About Segal Family Foundation
At Segal, we believe in a world where development is steered by grassroots leaders and power is shifted into the hands of communities. We work across Sub-Saharan Africa and strive to be true partners to our grantees. We want to change the power dynamics inherent in traditional philanthropy and prove that a new, more equitable, and responsive approach is not only more fair, but more effective. We support 300+ incredible organizations that are finding local and scalable solutions to Sub-Saharan Africa’s most pressing development challenges. We offer our grantee partners financial and capacity-building support, aimed at giving them a larger network of peer organizations and like-minded funders to share learnings and new opportunities as well as provide technical expertise.
Our vibrant team works virtually across continents. We move fast and adapt quickly as we find new and exciting ways to push our mission forward. We’ve got a lot of ambition, and we are looking for team members that will continue to help us punch above our weight.
Our team in Africa is spread across five countries and is responsible for finding and nurturing our community of grantee partners. They also lead in implementing our unique Active Partnership model of funding and supporting our grantees, including our flagship program catering to very early-stage organizations: the Social Impact Incubator. Our global team is responsible for supporting our Africa-side operations and directing our evaluation, communications, and partnerships work.
About the role
Our Partnerships team is responsible for engaging and influencing other funders per one pillar of our Theory of Change. To date, our partnerships’ work has yielded ~$65 million in additional funding from other donors towards our grantee partners. Our flagship program for our more mature grantee partners, the African Visionary Fellowship, sits within the Partnerships team and is heavily oriented toward driving more funding to these exemplary organizations. The team also leads on platform building efforts as well as innovative collaborations with peer funders, such as Bosch Foundation, Hilton Foundation, UNICEF, and many others. These successes, however, have been wrought from fairly minimal investment in this work, and we are now looking to increase the size of the Partnerships team and the scope of its impact. Additionally, we are shifting from a relatively reactive model of donor engagement toward offering more proactive and well-publicized donor referral services. The new Director of Partnerships will facilitate this transformation and support the greater SFF team in developing the relevant systems, skills, and resources to dramatically increase SFF’s influence with other philanthropic funders.
What does success look like?
By the end of 2030, the Director will lead the way in increasing SFF’s influence with other philanthropic funders dramatically- for example, increasing the amount of leveraged funding (the funding that SFF believes it is responsible for driving from other funders to our grantees) from currently $20m/year to over $100m by engaging with hundreds or more fellow funders. This leveraged funding will give oxygen to hundreds, if not thousands, of locally-led visionaries across the continent. By 2030, the Director will have fundraised for SFF’s expansion from its current five hubs to ~ten by 2030. This fundraising could amount to more than $10m/year in additional capital to drive SFF’s growth. Finally, by the end of the decade the Director will help SFF and its grantees to increase their reach- for example placing them in a position to access any platform from Davos to UNGA to the New York Times to relevant government Ministries.
In the next 2-3 years, the Director will oversee the buildout of the Partnerships team, numbering perhaps 5-8 extraordinary individuals based across the globe. The Director will oversee the construction of a robust backoffice system of tools to drive the work of donor engagement. During this time, the Director will also craft the strategy for SFF to directly fundraise in order to fuel its geographic expansion ambitions across Sub-Saharan Africa during the coming years.
Your responsibilities will include
Lead SFF’s Partnerships Strategy (10%)
-
Finalize SFF’s multi year strategic
priorities regarding partnerships and donor engagement in
collaboration with SFF’s staff and Board of Directors
Clearly communicate SFF’s org-wide
partnerships strategies and priorities internally and ensure all
teammates understand their individual roles and responsibilities to
support these priorities
Maintain progress toward SFF’s
partnerships and donor engagement goals, and ensure continuous
strategy refinement over the years
Donor Engagement (30%)
-
Coordinate our proactive connections
and influence with individuals funders
-
Lead donor research priorities,
scoping and identifying potential funder friends and understanding
their needs and interests
Support the team and partner
community to connect meaningfully with these funders, reaching
hundreds of individual funders through regular check ins in-person
or via phone
Personally connect with individual
funders to steward specific relationships (you will personally
manage ~50-60 relationships)
-
Lead our prioritization of and
engagement with high-priority platforms (affinity groups,
conferences, sector periodicals/journals, podcasts, etc.) for
the wider SFF team and partner community to access
As desired, represent SFF personally
on these platforms and support colleagues in preparing their
participation/presence
Contribute to the design and
implementation of our own donor engagement platforms, e.g., our
annual meetings, country-level gatherings, webinars, etc.
Grow SFF’s Philanthropic Advisory Services (20%)
-
Lead the transition into a highly
responsive donor advisory hub. There will be systems and processes
to build and iterate that have to work for a highly distributed,
diverse and busy team. You will lead collaborative and inclusive
design journeys, ensuring team perspectives and needs are fully
incorporated.
-
Oversee the creation of an effective
back-office system for all donor engagement across SFF: from
meetings prep to ensuring outcome-oriented post-meeting
follow-ups
Oversee efficient systems to respond
to unsolicited funder queries as volume increases
Map out and clarify all team roles
and collaboration points on fundraising/donor engagement at SFF.
Define workflows that lead to seamless, smooth collaboration
-
Drive definition and adoption of
processes to ensure the database is updated and contains
information relevant to our strategies. This includes reorganizing
existing information, researching new data as needed, and
documenting our ongoing donor activities
Lead in setting up a simple and
effective referral system that helps link our grantee partners and
funder friends in relevant ways
-
Work with our MEL and country teams
to gather useful and compelling evidence, intel, data, and impact
stories that can drive our donor engagement and advocacy
strategies
Partner with the Communications team
to develop materials and resources (such as topical talking points,
funder toolkit, donor newsletter, reports, etc.) that help other
funders tap into our learnings on trust-based philanthropy
Work with the Communications team to
build awareness of our philanthropic advisory services
Ensure the team is aligned on SFF’s
core messaging
Team Management (20%)
-
Lead the build-out of the
Partnerships team by aligning the structure to our ambitions and
identifying key roles to hire.
Lead performance management of the
Partnerships team and contribute to the evaluation of other team
members who participate in donor engagement.
-
The team currently includes the
African Visionary Fellowship (AVF) Manager (based in Kenya) and an
incoming Partnerships Officer (based in New Jersey).
Build the Donor Engagement Capacity of SFF’s Grantees and Team (10%)
-
Support SFF country offices and the
African Visionary Fellowship team in building their own respective
donor engagement strategies
-
Plan and oversee the execution of
capacity development activities to meet the needs of our team
Collaborate with the AVF Manager to
strengthen the fellowship’s capacity building services
Assess the donor engagement needs and
capacity of SFF grantees
Develop effective and efficient
systems for building the capacity of grantee partners
Special Projects (10%)
-
SFF is a dynamic organization. Often
our greatest impact comes from unanticipated projects or
initiatives. We want team members who are eager to carefully
consider unforeseen opportunities and capable of meeting unforeseen
challenges. You will lead consideration of arising opportunities to
achieve clarity and direction.
-
Examples of such projects include
unsolicited offers of funding that require the input of the team or
grantees as part of the considerations; opportunities to sponsor
podcast series; opportunities to lead funder affinity groups,
etc.
Who we are looking for
Required: You, as a Person and Teammate
-
You are deeply and painfully aware of
the challenges and historical power dynamics inherent in
philanthropy and are passionate to continue working towards
changing the field. You are aware of the personal discomfort this
work can bring and have built resilience needed to engage and
influence relevant stakeholders successfully. You balance impatient
radicality with “playing the game to change the game” - and are
choosing this mission with eyes wide open
You live the values of
Segal Family Foundation. Each one is essential to achieving our
mission, and we want to see a history of your engagement with
each
To lead well in our environment:
-
You thrive in dynamic work settings
and are curious to pursue creative and disruptive opportunities,
where things get messy at times - linear, robotic and predictable
contexts turn you off
You are excited about overlapping
roles, co-creation, and co-owning success and failure
You are comfortable and strategic in
delegation. You empower others to run and succeed with ideas
independently! If your power rests on hierarchy and position,
please don’t apply
You are comfortable in the spotlight
and savvy in elevating your peers to share it
-
We are a passionate team with lots of
opinions. You must be comfortable engaging deeply to forge
close-knit relationships, both virtually and in-person. You work
well across cultures and time zones
You are an open communicator,
confident to share your ideas, opinions, and suggestions candidly
while also open to new ways of thinking
You are empathetic, observant of the
needs of others, you ask and listen, and respond to the needs and
challenges of your teammates
Required: Skills and Expertise
-
Extensive successful fundraising
experience (5+ years)
-
You have previously overseen the
creation and successful execution of long-term fundraising
strategies for non-profit organizations
You relish the external side of donor
engagement and fundraising. You are adept at fundraising calls,
networking, pitching, and relationship building. You drive genuine
and spirit-full conversations to win over hearts and minds
You have a track record of success
with engaging and influencing Western philanthropists,
high-net-worth individuals, and private foundations
-
You recognize trends and draw
insights from your funder-facing conversations with a track record
of pursuing creative ideas, creating new opportunities, and driving
mutual value
You have experience weaving
storytelling and impact data together to create a compelling
narrative
-
Track record of using highly
collaborative and inclusive approaches when creating (or improving
existing) processes, systems and workflows that lay the groundwork
for things to run smoothly at scale
You have successfully designed and
overseen efficient workflows for smooth collaboration in
distributed and busy teams
You have overseen a bulky database
and implemented improvements to make sure it keeps working with a
big team that wants different things
-
You have previously led a huge
mandate with many moving parts and made strategic decisions to
prioritize where time and energy should go to achieve desired
outcomes
You have experience managing a
distributed team, ideally multicultural &
multinational
You balance the need to be
dynamic/opportunistic while offering your team a comfortable level
of order and structure
Nice to Haves
-
Familiarity w/ the Impact Investment
scene- both the what & the who
Experience engaging and influencing
Asian and African philanthropists
Why work with us
-
Mission and Impact:
We want to change the face of philanthropy while uplifting
incredible local leaders (who we like to call rockstars). Every day
we support local leaders changing the lives of their
communities.
Career Development:
We hire ambitious people and support them to develop their skills
and leadership potential. We support each other to grow and propel
them even further in their career trajectory through self-elected
opportunities and a competitive professional development
stipend.
Autonomy: We hire
smart and talented people and let them lead the way. You will get a
team behind you for support and will be given the autonomy to
execute.
Work Hard, Play
Hard: We put in the extra time and go the extra mile to
support our grantee partners. But we also love to laugh, have fun,
and enjoy the camaraderie we’ve built amongst our team.
Variety and
Adventure: We support 300+ grantee partners across 20+
African countries. Regardless of how much you travel, you will get
to experience new cultures, places, and exciting organizations
across the continent.
Benefits: We believe
in supporting the wellbeing of our employees, so we offer health
insurance (medical/dental/vision), pension contribution, generous
and flexible paid time off, and support for ongoing professional
development.
Other information
-
The starting salary for this position
will be $130,000-150,000 based on relevant experience.
This full-time role is flexible in
terms of location, with a logistical preference for North America
(more specifically Eastern time zone). Residing in one of our
African country offices (Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda)
or Europe will also be considered.
Working hours are flexible though the
role requires weekly calls during business hours associated with
New Jersey (EST) and East Africa (EAT).
Travel is a key component of the job
with minimum travel of six weeks each year but ideally eight+
weeks, including attending conferences worldwide and time on the
ground with our staff and grantee partners in East
Africa.
African diasporans with existing work
authorization in the US or Europe are highly encouraged to
apply!
We will agree on a six-month
probation period with mutually agreed-upon performance and learning
objectives, during which time you’ll be closely supported by the
rest of the SFF team, especially the Exec Team.
Segal Family Foundation is an Equal
Opportunity Employer.
Want to apply?
-
Fill in the form under this link:
https://bit.ly/JoinSFF-PD
The selection process includes case
studies, personality tests, interviews, and reference checks. It
will be carried out in collaboration with Edge, our HR partner
based in Nairobi.
For any questions, feel free to reach
out to sff@edgeperformance.co.ke
Please take a look at our candidate
guide under http://bit.ly/CandidatesGuide
Based on the number of applications,
only shortlisted candidates may be communicated with.
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