Senior Associate, Grant Management at Women Deliver

Summary of the Position:

The Senior Associate will bring technical expertise in trust-based grantmaking practices to support Women Deliver in directly resourcing advocates, primarily from global majority countries, to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and gender equality. The Senior Associate, Grant Management oversees and supports grantmaking across all Women Deliver workstreams, with a focus on grantmaking to adolescents and youth as part of the Emerging Leaders for Change program.

Additionally, the Senior Associate will support the development and management of new and emerging grantmaking initiatives at Women Deliver, including to organizations active in countering anti-rights movements at local and regional levels. The Countering Anti-Rights portfolio of grants will be identified and administered through an in-depth consultation with affected stakeholders, preferably through participatory and trust-based grant-making methodologies.

As this role will spend a significant level of effort contributing to the Emerging Leaders program, this role will report to the Senior Manager, Youth Engagement, responsible for directing the Emerging Leaders work stream.

Responsibilities:

Grant Management (70%):

• Guide Emerging Leader grantees[1] through the creation of their grant project during the Emerging Leaders Journey creation period (months 1-5 of the program inception)
• Provide coaching and technical assistance to Emerging Leader grantees in the implementation of their advocacy projects, in partnership with other Women Deliver staff and Emerging Leader Program Mentor, and serve as the grantee’s point of contact for their grant
• Lead and facilitate grant- making participatory processes such as co-creation sessions and youth consultations with Emerging Leader grantees as needed
• Work with the Countering Anti-Rights issue area expert to develop a new grantmaking initiative for civil society actors working to promote SRHR and counter anti-rights actors in local and regional contexts. This will be guided by the findings of an in-depth consultation with stakeholders affected by anti-rights movements in their SRHR work, and will utilize trust-based and participatory methodologies.

Manage reporting and compliance of grants by:

• Drafting and managing grant agreements, in partnership with Women Deliver’s legal counsel and Senior Manager, Finance & Operations
• Overseeing due diligence requirements for new grantees
• Continuously reviewing and improving on reporting practices to center learning for both Emerging Leaders and Women Deliver, including finalizing initial reporting plans and designs for Program launch on October 1, 2024
• Working with grantees to identify key learnings through reporting practices, and make real-time project adaptations based on those learnings
• Processing grant disbursements as designed in grant agreements in partnership with the Finance and Operations team
• Reviewing final learning reports from Emerging Leader grantees and closing out of grants
• Reviewing grantee financial reporting and supporting documentation, in partnership with Senior Manager, Finance & Operations; liaising with grantees on any necessary revisions or clarifications
• Cultivating and managing relationships with any fiscal sponsor organizations working with Emerging Leaders
• Lead the design of and manage the implementation for new grant making initiatives to resource advocates from global majority countries.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (15%)

• Project manage all qualitative and quantitative reporting on the Emerging Leaders’ Workstream, in partnership with the Youth Engagement Team and the Senior Advisor for Design, Learning, and Impact.
• Lead, in partnership with relevant focals and the Senior Advisor for Design, Learning, and Impact, all qualitative and quantitative reporting on all grantmaking initiatives, including the Emerging Leaders for Change program and the Countering Anti-Rights initiatives, by drawing out key results and learning for the organization’s Feminist Intentions for Change framework and donor reporting.

Thought Leadership (5%)

• Lead the ongoing adaptation and refinement of the Emerging Leaders for Change grantmaking approaches, tools and processes, including during the pilot phase (first cohort) and as new cohorts launch in new regions, to ensure Women Deliver is modeling trust-based and youth-centric grantmaking practices.
• Serve as grant management technical expert to all Women Deliver workstreams; this includes serving as a thought partner and advising on emerging grant making opportunities in Women Deliver’s collective action and convenings work.
• Participate in grantmaking learning and knowledge sharing opportunities internally and externally to support Women Deliver and partners to model equitable and trust-based grantmaking practices.

Cross-team Support (10%)

• Co-create with Youth Engagement team members grant and financial management related capacity-strengthening trainings, workshops, resources, and other relevant learning opportunities.
• Serve as a key member of the Youth Engagement team and contribute as requested to additional projects within the Emerging Leaders for Change workstream, including but not limited to new cohort selection, co-creation of Emerging Leaders Program convenings and events.

Qualifications

• 4-6 years of experience in program and grant management, with an emphasis on equitable approaches to trust-based and/or participatory grantmaking, in youth engagement, advocacy, sustainable development, gender equality, or sexual and reproductive health and rights required.
• Experience working with and for adolescents and young people globally, including those from diverse backgrounds, on social change-focused campaigns, programs, or initiatives, and utilizes ways of working that embody equitable youth engagement and co-leadership required.
• Strong understanding of budget management and monitoring, evaluation, & learning frameworks to both support grantees and report out from the small grants program required.
• Knowledgeable in any of the following: sexual and reproductive health and rights, Women Deliver’s three issue areas (Climate Justice, Countering Anti-Rights Actors, and
• Universal Health Coverage), and/or adolescent girl issues and rights strongly preferred.
• Commitment to fostering an anti-racist and inclusive workplace required.
• Experience in program design and developing grantmaking strategies desirable.