Partnerships Support Officer, Research and Innovation

Job Description

Background/IRC Summary: 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.

Job Overview/Summary

Airbel Impact Lab is the Research & Innovation (R&I) function within IRC. Airbel Impact Lab designs, tests, and scales life-changing, cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. We apply the IRC’s deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills to develop breakthrough solutions that combine creativity and rigor, openness and expertise, and a desire to think afresh with the experience of a large-scale implementing organization.

This role is part of the IRC’s Global Partnerships and Philanthropic Services (GPPS) unit, a team of specialists which provides a variety of cultivation, support and stewardship functions for the organization’s high-value donors, partners, and supporters.

The Partnerships Support Officer will lead on bringing internal IRC teams together to successfully implement development strategies and donor stewardship plans, ensuring our high-value fundraisers are engaging the right prospects and our teams are developing the right assets to mobilize resources, including core funding, for Airbel’s life-changing priorities. This role is a critical contributor to the continued growth and development of strategic new business opportunities to meet Airbel’s $11.6M private fundraising ambition. The role will galvanize and work alongside IRC’s high-value fundraisers (account managers), Airbel project leads, in-country and HQ program experts, and support teams to significantly raise the profile of, and increase revenue for, R&I at IRC. The Partnerships Support Officer will report to the Director, Program Services in GPPS.

Major Responsibilities: ---------------------------

Fundraising support -------------------

- Support the Director, Research & Innovation Partnerships to ensure R&I funding needs and priorities are well represented across high-value fundraising teams on an ongoing basis, proactively sharing information, and advocating as needed on behalf of R&I - Work alongside technical leads and the wider GPPS team to develop multifaceted and compelling material that strike the balance between technical depth and clarity of vision for specific audiences - Support the creation of stewardship plans for donors in collaboration with account managers - Support the Director, Research & Innovation Partnerships to implement proposal development processes as needed for R&I, bringing together teams across the organization – including senior leadership.

Internal coordination & process improvements ------------------------------------------------

- Help develop and operationalize standard ways of working and process workflows for cross-functional projects between GPPS, R&I, and other teams to grow overall funding, advance our private-sector partnerships pursuits, prioritize funding needs, increase efficiency, and ensure appropriate partner sign off - Coordinate with relevant teams to ensure efficient support to R&I - Ensure an outstanding level of service to our internal partners, including coordinating and leading effective cross-functional meetings, and ensuring decisions and follow up are taken in a timely manner - Complement and amplify the existing capacity of the R&I engagement team to HV teams (communications, knowledge management, proposal development, and grants management)

Portfolio management support ----------------------------

- Maintains an up-to-date record of all private sector partnerships in R&I to inform effective and timely delivery of relevant updates, progress and insight to the relevant business teams - Ensures consistency and compliance across private partnerships for the entire duration of a partnership in close coordination with the fundraising teams and R&I, to ensure donor requirements are met and compliance issues are raised as needed - Keeps up-to-date on developments around research/innovation implementation, flagging risks and challenges around implementation, and ensures timely flow of information to support efficient delivery of donor reports - Coordinates and ensures clear, reliable reporting for maximum partnership impact, including drafting and finalizing donor reports and communication materials for R&I, as needed - Ensure SNAP entries are up-to-date - Provides project management support on large strategic grants as requested from fundraising teams and R&I

Key Working Relationships: ------------------------------

Position Reports to: Director, Program Services

Position directly supervises: N/A

Other Internal and/or external contacts: --------------------------------------------

- IRC External Relations and Fundraisers - Chief Research and Innovation Officer, R&I - Airbel Core Team - Technical Unit Directors and Team Members - Country Program Staff

Job Requirements: ---------------------

Experience and skills:

- 4- 6 years of related work experience, preferably with a large International Non-Governmental Organization in fundraising and/or advocacy - Outstanding relationship management, writing, and presentation skills - Experience working with grants management processes - Demonstrated ability to collaborate closely with technical authorities to structure revenue plans - Experience fundraising for technical research and innovation; ability to quickly get up to speed on research and technical content - Excellent track record of delivering on sophisticated proposals and projects - Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs, Public Administration, Economics, Business Studies, Accounting, Commerce, or equivalent professional experience

Preferred experience & skills: ----------------------------------

- The ideal candidate will have experiences across strategic partnership development, fundraising and communications channels - Experience with high net worth individual (HNWI) fundraising preferred - International business experience across diverse contexts; working with global, cross-cultural teams - Experience developing multi-million dollar research partnerships - Master’s degree in related field or equivalent experience a bonus - Proficiency in another of the working languages of the IRC (Spanish, French and/or Arabic)

The International Rescue Committee is an Equal Opportunity Employer. International Rescue Committee considers all candidates on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and implements policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

#LI-GR1

Qualifications