Grants Coordinator

Job Description

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 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to the displaced and refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The current IRC North Central America (NCA) program, in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, is a protection-focused humanitarian response, coordinated with a network of local organizations to increase access to information and protection services for children, women, girls, survivors of gender violence, LGBTQ+, affected by climate disasters and forcibly displaced. All NCA programs are based on institutional expertise and IRC methodologies developed through experience providing humanitarian support to people affected by crises around the world for more than 88 years.

Job overview

The Grants Coordinator provides strategic guidance and support to the Guatemala team on program development issues, grants/sub-grants management and compliance, and Donor relations. S/he facilitates proposal development processes and supports a variety of aspects of project cycle management, including reporting, grant and sub-grant monitoring and modifications, and grant closing. The GC will ensure effective coordination with all key staff members including those based in HQ and Region.

Responsibilities

Business Development:

• Lead and manage IRC Guatemala's Business Development strategy, supporting CD, DDPs and Technical Coordinators in proactive engagement with potential and existing donors for fundraising to implement its Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and maintaining good relationships.

• Lead the proposal writing and coordinate with all relevant staff to gather their inputs in a timely fashion with support from the programs, finance, and operations teams and coordinate efforts with Regional and HQ-based (NYC, London, Germany) colleagues.

• Support the Grants team members and other relevant colleagues in coordinating and maintaining an efficient system for proposal/concept note development and revisions as relevant. Maintain clear responsibilities outlined for management, programs, finance, and operations departments - that yield timely, high-quality submissions.

• Ensure proposals are timely tracked with standard IRC tracking tools (e.g., FM01, OTIS).

• Be the interlocutor (depending on the project) for the HQ-based (NYC, London, Germany) and primary Guatemala focal points regarding Business Development initiatives and coordinate with all relevant technical and implementation colleagues.

• Devise the timelines with clear responsibilities for the proposal development and submission.

• Analyze all funding opportunities in collaboration with the technical units’ in-country, Region, and HQ levels for further actions.

• Ensure that all current major projects/and those to be developed are aligned with respective Theory of Change with strong Measurement Frameworks.

• Contribute to the identification of potential donors, maintenance of donor relations and mobilization of resources to support planned work as per the SAP, ensuring the Value for Money

• Promote the involvement of stakeholder groups, including implementing partners and beneficiaries (where possible), in designing new projects/ programs.

• Strengthen the capacity of team members on donor policies, regulations and procedures.

Grants Management:

• Collaborate with finance, compliance, operations, grants and program team in reviewing donor contracts and outline major concerns to the relevant country and HQ-based colleagues.

• Support the Grants team and other relevant colleagues in organizing Grant Opening; Regular/Monthly review and Closure Meetings in a timely and effective manner.

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

• Ensure compliance with donor’s policy and procedures at the time of financial and progress reporting.

• Ensure preparation of high-quality, comprehensive donor reports, combining information from all areas, including finance, operations, and programs.

• 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.

• Maintain effective coordination with the Award Management Unit in IRC HQs and Region for any day-to-day requirements including periodical realignments of the budgets, managing cost/no-cost extensions etc.

• Support the partnerships team to advance the partnership agenda and partnerships management in line with IRC’s global and NCA strategy.

• Conduct monitoring visits to field locations when needed.

• Ensure quality grant-related information management by overseeing the regular maintenance of grant files, reporting schedules, and updating internal IRC documentation and Grants Unit tools.

• Act as custodian of the documentation of institutional knowledge and program activities in coordination with supervisors and sector coordinators.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to the Deputy Director Programs – Guatemala

• Works closely with other Grant team members for portfolio management and ensuring consistency across NCA.

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 HQ-based teams and ensure adherence to organizational and Donor compliance requirements while ensuring quality and meeting deadlines

Qualifications

• Master’s or equivalent Degree in Economics/ Business Administration/ International Relations.

• Extensive experience in managing Donor contracts and fundraising activities, in particular with ECHO, UN, FCDO, USG, GAC, GFFO, GIZ, SIDA, etc.

• Proven experience with samples/examples of high-quality report and proposal writing

• 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

• 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

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

• 6-7 years of consistent proven and successful experience of program development, managing donors after approval of projects (including reporting, realignments, extensions, etc.)

Language Preference

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Spanish

Professional conduct standards: IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles described in IRC Way-Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and implements policies on protecting the beneficiary from exploitation and abuse, safeguarding the child, harassment in the workplace, tax integrity and anti-retaliation.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to reducing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce, including parental leave, gender-sensitive safety protocols, and other benefits and support subsidies.

Equal Employer Opportunity: IRC is an equal opportunity employer. The IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit regardless of race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law Applicable.

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Qualifications