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Job Title: Proposal Development Manager
About VSO:VSO is the world's leading international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty. Working in 24 countries around the world, our unique role in international development is to place committed volunteers with carefully selected organisations where their skills can have the greatest impact. Our extraordinary volunteers live and work in some of the world's poorest communities. Sharing their unique skills and experience to generate new ideas and new ways of doing things, helping the communities they work in lift themselves out of poverty. We're not about delivering quick fixes, but instead we focus on long-lasting, sustainable change, that will impact generations to come. Join us and help us work towards our vision of a world without poverty.
Purpose of role: Support VSO to seek and respond to restricted funding opportunities - developing competitive funding proposals by coordinating VSO bid teams and acting as lead writer.
Responsibilities:
Funding strategy & positioning is aligned to programme priorities:
- Contribute to a global, coordinated fundraising strategy, centered around VSO's Core Programme Areas and Signature Programmes - when required participating in the CPA and SP development processes (either as a process coordinator or a member of the core development team)
- Work collaboratively with wider funding team to help identify and plan strategies to position VSO with potential partners and donors
Bid development:
- Rapidly pull together bid materials (proposal, presentation, concept outline) that bring a project or programme idea into a concrete, fundable proposition (including bringing out the VfM arguments, responding to donor/partner key interests, & being technically compliant, to ensure sound concept in line with good development practice and feasible delivery -
- Provide bid development for single and multi-country bids, regional and global calls and where VSO is a member of a consortia (as lead or sub)
- Manage and lead diverse proposal bid teams (made up of country office staff, partners, volunteers, VSO technical experts from finance, M&E & fundraising, programme teams and external consultants as needed) to deliver highly competitive concept notes and full proposals for all funding sources (institutional donors, trusts, foundations, major donors, and the corporate sector) -emphasis on large scale funding opportunities over £1M, complex and / or consortia applications
- Design and lead on proposal development workshops to bring together and validate consortia/bid team inputs
- Ensure legally binding teaming agreements are in place with consortia partners, and facilitate internal proposal risk assessment sign offs by senior leadership
- Ensure Value for Money arguments and Theories of Change and Cost Recovery are clearly articulated in all proposals
- As part of the wider business development team, provide high quality proposal review to other proposals (where not the lead)
- Identify, collate and share good practice and learning around donor requirements and agreed programme portfolio
- Contribute to the development of signature packages for country offices as part of the prepositioning and bid development core function.
Other
- 15-20% time expected for cross functional, professional growth pursuits (e.g. buddying with others to expand repertoire or increase exposure to areas of thematic or technical interest) that simultaneously provide needed increased capacity to 'non-core JD' initiatives.
- Participate as a core member of the VSO global funding team to provide report analysis on progress, learning, and recommendations, and to harmonize processes and support a global approach to mobilizing resources and building strategic partnerships.
- Support capacity building and training of country office team and local partners on proposal development
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Skills/Experience Required:
- Proven experience of preparing compelling, high quality documentation (concept notes, presentations, proposals, budgets, reports, logframes, Theories of Change etc) for different donor audiences
- Proven track record in writing winning donor proposals for donors including USAID, EC, UKAID, SIDA and UN Agencies - excellent knowledge of donor proposal formats, logframes and budgeting
- Experience of establishing and cultivating strong donor relationships that have delivered substantially increased income
- Proven experience of evaluating proposals and providing high quality analytical, feedback to programmes
- Familiarity with M&E tools; theories of change, monitoring frameworks and basic evaluation techniques
- Proven ability to research new funding opportunities and to make appropriate judgements about their potential to realise significant restricted income
- Strong interpersonal skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills used in international settings - experience of leading and facilitating workshops and training
- Proven experience of establishing and negotiating partnerships between organisations; experience in developing and writing consortia proposals and teaming agreements as part of consortia bid development
- Strong administrative and organizational skills: ability to be self-directed and take initiative
- Strong analytical and financial and skills
Qualifications required
- Educated to degree level in international development-related discipline
- IT skills including fluency in Microsoft Office suite and database usage
- Experience of living and working internationally (4+ years required)
- Fluency in English (written and spoken). Portuguese, French or other language desirable
- Ability to travel globally (estimated 30-50% travel required)
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