Donor Outreach/ Fundraising Consultant, Astana, Kazakhstan

The UNICEF Office in Kazakhstan is looking for Donor Outreach/ Fundraising Consultant for Astana Office

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background

UNICEF’s in Kazakhstan aims to advance the country’s capacity to promote children’s rights domestically, regionally and globally, by leveraging national and international capacity, knowledge, and experience in priority areas for children. Domestically, the UNICEF-Government of Kazakhstan country programme for 2016-2020 focuses on demonstrating innovative child-focused local policy initiatives and demonstration models which can be brought to scale nationally and which can provide best-practice examples for knowledge exchange with other countries.

Donor income is a significant contributor to results for children in Kazakhstan, supporting a large share of activities taking place at oblast levels. In recent years traditional donors have gradually reduced their presence in Kazakhstan, or have mainly focused away from supporting large scale reforms to small-grant funding of NGOs, while relationship with emerging donors have not yet reached scale. Meanwhile, the private sector in Kazakhstan is a potential source of income and innovative partnerships to leverage results for children. Increasing numbers of international subsidiaries operating in Kazakhstan point to a wider private sector base and potential for alliance building around corporate social responsibility aimed at leveraging social changes, and with potential for generating OR income.

To maximize flexible and predictable funding for children in Kazakhstan, UNICEF CO in 2016-2017 undertook an initial strategic analysis of the donor market in the country and of UNICEF’s potential to leverage innovative partnerships in pursuance of the goals set out in the Country Program Action Plan. This analysis translated into a UNICEF resource mobilization strategy and a UNICEF Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy (CSR), which includes a detailed overview of CSR schemes for consideration and potential implementation. The resource mobilization strategy provides direction on what can be realistically achieved in terms of mobilizing resources for joint action, given UNICEF’s projected funding needs post-2017. The CSR strategy aims to help the private sector in Kazakhstan advance their understanding of responsible business conduct (RBC) principles to benefit both businesses and the society, with a focus on the most disadvantaged families with children. Altogether, both documents aim to promote children’s rights and sustain more resources for children’s wellbeing in Kazakhstan.

The resource mobilization strategy set the course for UNICEF’s further fundraising action that shall built on the following essential practical steps: identify, engage, negotiate, manage and report, and communicate results. Table 1 summarizes these critical five steps to guide the Organization’s resource mobilization initiatives.

UNICEF has developed an overall vision for the implementation of each of the resource mobilization steps outlined in the Table 1. The vision focuses on identifying and targeted engaging of potential donors, while acknowledging the importance of powerful communication of UNICEF results throughout resource mobilization actions. The two focus areas – donor engagement and negotiation – along with the need for donor-specific consistent communication require a dedicated focal point who would possess a comprehensive understanding of donor relations, fundraising and proposal writing.

Purpose of the Assignment:

UNICEF aims to immediately upshift its activities in fundraising, with a differentiated focus on traditional and emerging donors, and on pursuing innovative fund-raising initiatives for flexible, non-earmarked resources, including through the private sector. UNICEF is therefore looking to recruit a talented individual to quickly support UNICEF’s outreach to donors on fundraising.

Scope:

The contractor will directly contribute to raising ‘Other Resources’ with the overall objective of securing up to US$2 million per year. Specifically, in line with the Country Programme Funds Mobilization Strategy, the contractor will focus initially on (1) the rapid analysis of donors’ potential to contribute Other Resources to the country programme, (2) the short-term prioritization and recruitment of high value potential donors, including follow-up on prospective funding opportunities and supporting UNICEF to sustain UNICEF-donor agreements and conclude funding agreements (3) the elaboration and dissemination of multiple, high-quality funding proposals, and (4) the preparation and dissemination of donor-focused visibility and advocacy material promoting investment in the UNICEF-supported country programme for Kazakhstan. The contractor will later elaborate, test and revise viable strategies and actions for effective fundraising both internationally and in Kazakhstan. The contractor will collaborate closely with relevant staff at country and regional levels to understand the details of UNICEF’s support to the country programme and to elaborate funding proposals. To the same end, the contractor shall consult relevant publications (research, evaluation, public information and analysis) including from UNICEF and external sources, and where needed conduct interviews and/or focus group discussions (with relevant UNICEF staff, donors, and other partners). Travel within Kazakhstan should be expected.

Objectives:

1. Conduct a rapid market analysis and assessment of fundraising opportunities for Kazakhstan among traditional, emerging and private sector donors, enabling prioritization of short-term fundraising approaches and related actions. Establish and maintain a donor database with appropriate information and categorization.
2. Elaborate and implement a short-term outreach strategy with specific targets for engaging high potential donors in supporting results for children in Kazakhstan. Targets should align with annual fundraising targets for Other Resources income.
3. Facilitate donor engagement and relations, including information exchange pertaining to funding arrangements.
4. Produce multiple and engaging funding proposals, tailored respectively by donor, thematic area, programme, project and models and driven by accurate data, information, evidence and international best practices from UNICEF.
5. In consultation relevant UNICEF Communication Produce appealing donor-engagement material (including illustrated concept notes, program outlines or factsheets to communicate the essence of the proposals to target audiences.
6. Document donor outreach and fundraising approaches, respective analysis of effectiveness and adjustments to approaches.

Assignment Tasks:

The expected final products (in English) of this contract:

• Market analysis is available, updated monthly.
• Short-term fund-raising plan of action for your work with tangible deliverables and agreed fundraising targets.
• At least 3 actionable proposals produced per month* (for first 6 months) and distributed to targeted donors. * Dependent on effectiveness of this approach.
• At least 6 donor engagement materials (max two page length each, using compelling visuals, info graphics) that illustrate UNICEF’s track record in the suggested area and its capacity to deliver, as well as the importance, timeliness and relevance of proposed activities.
• A document trail for your work including evidence of continuous analysis and re-assessment of effectiveness of fundraising approaches.

Expected Deliverables:

Performance indicators for evaluation of results:

The evaluation of the results will be based on supervisor’s assessment of the products delivered to UNICEF, including:

• A rapid market analysis of donor potential is available by 30 July.
• A fundraising plan of action with agreed deliverables and targets are available by 16 August.
• Number and value of proposals distributed to potential donors; percentage coverage of potential doors; proportion of fundraising targets achieved.
• Demonstrated technical and professional competence;
• Quality and timeliness of work;
• Quantity of work (completion of assigned tasks); and
• Ability to meet fundraising targets and positive return on investment.

In addition, such indicators as work relations, responsibility, and communication will be taken into account during the evaluation of the Contractor work.

RESERVATIONS:
All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

CONDITIONS:

The contractor will work full-time at UNICEF premises to ensure daily contact with supervisor and appropriate staff. The contractor will be expect to supply his/her own equipment (PC, mobile etc.) A workspace will be provided by UNICEF including connectivity to internet and UNICEF information resources.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate:

• At least 5 years of progressive work experience in Fundraising, Marketing, Business Development, or related field. Work experience in fundraising and reporting for international organisations will be considered a significant advantage
• Significant ability in market analysis, research, documentation, and report writing.
• High level ability in written English, with a reader-friendly style and demonstrated ability to translate complex information into simple and accessible text for a wide audience. Candidates may be asked to provide writing samples such as publications, articles, policy briefs.
• Good inter-personal communication skills.
• Fluency in English required.
• Fluency in Kazakh will be considered an advantage.

Education:

Masters degree in Marketing, Fundraising, Communication, Business Analysis or a related field. University degree in Social Sciences accepted with relevant work experience in above fields.

To view our competency framework, please click here. 

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.