Grants Manager

BACKGROUND:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries, the IRC aims to restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

In response to the influx of refugees in Greece, the IRC Hellas started operations in Greece in June 2015 and currently runs operations out of four offices in Athens, Mytilini, Vathy (Samos) and Chios. IRC is implementing programs in the sectors of Mental Health, Child Protection, Gender Based Violence prevention and response, Water and Sanitation, Shelter and Site Management Support, Emergency and COVID-19 preparedness and response and Economic Recovery & Development.

SCOPE OF WORK: The Grants Manager leads the production of timely, high-quality project proposals, amendment requests, and reports for submission to donor; provides program and support teams with advice on compliance with donor and IRC regulations; supports the implementation of effective partnerships and maintenance of positive and constructive relationships with donors. S/he ensures information management, grants management, grants capacity-building efforts and other key functions as needed.

This position reports to the Head of Office and has close working relations with the Head of Programs and the Senior Finance Manager in Greece as well as with the Regional Awards Management team (London, Berlin, New York). The Grants Manager supervises the Grants & Partnerships Senior Officer, Grants Officer and Program Development Officer.

RESPONSIBILITIES: The Grants Manager shall:

Grants Management & Reporting  

• Coordinate all program revisions and budget realignments on large strategic grants
• Maintain a broad and deep understanding of donor policies, regulations, and procedures and assist program technical leads and operations staff with understanding them.
• Lead the preparation, review and documentation of memoranda of understanding, agreements and agreement modifications for the IRC Greece country program.
• Proactively identify grant compliance risks throughout the portfolio and advise programs, operations, finance and senior management on necessary actions.
• Oversee the donor reporting processes, coordinating with the technical program managers to ensure the timely submission of high-quality programmatic reports and coordinate with Finance to ensure timely submission of financial reports.
• In concert with the finance team, assist program technical leads and operations staff with understanding the reporting and other compliance requirements on their grants, keep track of expenditures and notify of any major underspends and/or compliance concerned relevant internal and external stakeholders
• Liaise with Regional staff about specific grant compliance issues and clearly communicate these issues through to relevant colleagues in the field.
• Work with the Grants Officer to organize grant opening, review and closeout meetings, and monitor post-meeting implementation of action points.
• With the Head of Office and Head of Program, maintain positive and constructive relationships with donors, in-country and abroad.

Program / Proposal Development

• Oversee the work of the Program Development Officer (recruitment on going) and/or lead the following duties and responsibilities.
• Identify key proposal and donor-related information linked to new funding opportunities and communicate to relevant staff, as needed
• Lead and/or support the coordination and development of high-quality proposals for submission to donors
• Lead on the writing of new proposals and maintain an efficient system for proposal development. Maintain clear responsibilities outlined for management, programs, finance and the operations departments that yields timely, high-quality submissions.

Partnership Management

• Oversee the effective implementation of the IRC Greece partnerships, in collaboration with the Senior Grants and Partnerships Manager and in line with the IRC partnership system (PEERS)

Institutional Memory and Capacity Strengthening

• Ensure quality knowledge and information management  through regular maintenance of grant files, reporting calendars, timely submission and other internal tools
• Oversee and support the Grants team to ensure proposals are tracked with standard IRC tracking tools
• Build grant and partnership management capacity of field staff by facilitating training, and providing one on one follow up support, in report writing, proposal development and other topics.

Other

• Supervise the grants and partnership team. Discuss job expectations, set objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback regarding performance, promote strong team spirit, provide guidance and oversight to enable staff to successfully perform their duties. 
• Support the IRC Greece office with other tasks as needed.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:

• Position Reports to: Head of Office
• Supervises: Grants Officer, Grants & Partnerships Senior Officer, Program Development Officer
• Internal collaborations within IRC: Head of Programs and all program teams; Finance; Supply Chain; M&E; HR; Regional Awards Management Unit; and Regional Communications team.
• External collaborations to IRC: IRC donors, partner organizations, other NGOs