Grants Coordinator

The Grants Coordinator is responsible for the timely production of high-quality project proposals, amendment requests, and donor reports; providing program and support teams with advice on compliance with donor and IRC regulations; leading and managing the Bangladesh office’s partnership strategy and implementation; and managing the organization and administration of contract/grant documents. Being a member of the Country Management Team, the Grants Coordinator will advise the CMT on matters on donor engagement and portfolio management and contribute effectively in overall strategy development for the country program.

Business Development:

• Lead and manage IRC Bangladesh Business Development strategy, support CD, acting DDP and technical Coordinators in proactive engagement with potential and existing donors in for fundraising to implement its Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and maintaining good relationship    

• Lead the process of concept notes and donor proposal development by working closely with Country Management and Leadership team and Regional and Headquarter based Award Management Unit teams

• Support the country program in organizing and leading program design workshops for all new business development opportunities. Lead on the writing of new proposals and maintain an efficient system for proposal development. Maintain clear responsibilities outlined for management, programs, finance and operations departments - that yields timely, high quality submissions. Ensure that proposals are aligned with the IRC’s Bangladesh Strategy and Strategy Action Plan (SAP) outcomes and based on analysis of local needs and gaps

• Ensure proposals are timely tracked with standard IRC tracking tools (e.g. FM01, OTIS). Be the primary interlocutor for the HQ-based (NYC and London) Bangladesh focal points with regards to proposal processing

• Coordinate proposal and project/program revisions (issuing and management of timelines and development processes, writing and editing as needed, providing review, liaison with reviewers, etc.)

• Represent IRC with relevant partners/consortia, donors, and coordination bodies (working groups, clusters) as appropriate

Grants Management:

• Review donor contracts and outline major concerns to relevant country and HQ based colleagues. Summarize in writing, key reporting and compliance requirements (compliance checklist) including potential issues for Grant Opening Meetings

• Work with the relevant Technical Teams and other functions to ensure Grant Opening Meetings, Grant Review Meetings, and Grant Closure Meetings are timely arranged ensuring desired quality, and all mandatory internal documents are in place (internal log frame, internal budget, procurement plan, M&E matrix)

• Responsible for the finalization of timely donor reports ensuring consistency between narrative and financial reports and that they meet quality standards

• Support and advise colleagues with queries related to donor compliance on grants within portfolio, and work with other departments (i.e. programs, finance, M&E, supply chai) to ensure all documentation required is ready and available for audits

• Undertake proactive assessment of potential risks in managing donor contracts throughout the project cycle management, anticipate risks, inform and support all concerned including SMT to take timely risk mitigation measures  

• Support roll out of Integra in IRC Bangladesh Country Program

Partnership Management:

• Oversee, facilitate and coordinate all aspects of partnership life cycle management, from stakeholder analysis, partner identification, due diligence, project development, agreement, start-up, implementation, monitoring through to close-out, coordinating effectively with all program, operations and finance components

• Ensure the timely review of partners’ financial and narrative reports in accordance with the terms of their partnership agreements, coordinating with Partnership Finance Manager, Partnerships Officer, and programs teams

• Maintain and coordinate partner program, finance, and compliance monitoring and review meeting schedules, and coordinate support for partners to address any concerns or issues that may arise. Ensure any issues are attended to

• Assess partners’ risks, develop and roll out capacity building actions in coordination with all concerned.

• Coordinate with Finance and Program departments for internal review and clearance of all financial documentation and reporting associated with sub-grants

• Act as grants compliance focal point by identifying partners’ sub-grant compliance risks and incidents (such as activity implementation or reporting delays, or missing program documentation), making recommendations for further action

Major Challenges/ Difficulties of This Role

• Work under tight deadlines while dealing with competing priorities

• Coordinate and gather the necessary inputs from other functions/roles while meeting the necessary quality within tight deadlines;

• Work with diverse country, region and headquarter based teams and ensure adherence to organizational and donor compliance requirements while ensure quality and meeting deadlines

• Inadequate capacity of local partner NGOs who may need significant hand holding support and monitoring

Deliverables

• Up to date business development strategy and its socialization among all concerned internal stakeholders
• Secure income from both UN and non UN donors for the country program as per business development targets set by the regional office and in consistent manner
• Ensure that all donor contracts are managed effectively (e.g. compliances, no disallowance and minimum return of funds) while adhering to internal and donor standards
• IRC continue to improve and maintain its relationship with existing and new donors
• Partnership with local NGOs developed to implement SAP preferably in host community
• Effective partnership management following IRC’s standard policy and practices
• All budget holders have increased capacity to understand and manage donor contracts as well as partnership management
• Effective management of direct reports following IRC way, success model and people management standards
• Timely fulfilment of grants related requirement to out of Integra in Bangladesh CP
• As part of SMT, actively contribute on various management priorities especially around staff engagement and well-being, gender equality, SAP 20XX, client’s responsiveness etc.

Competencies: Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Extensive experience in managing donor contracts and fundraising activities, in particular from UN and other institutional donors, such as ECHO, DFID, USD, GAC, SIDA etc.

• Excellent communication skills in English. High quality copywriting and editing skills

• Excellent numeracy and financial skills, particularly in developing budgets, financial management/monitoring and reporting

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in both English and Bangla

• Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree in Economics/ Business Administration/ International Relations/ Development Studies

• Sound understanding of Program Cycle Management in emergencies and development environments, program quality and partnership management.

• High level of analytical skills, negotiation skills and critical thinking

• Ability to manage and lead a team to achieve goals in a complex working environment

• Highly developed interpersonal and communication and relationship skills with ability to influence external organizations and individuals

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