Development Officer – Strategic Partnerships

Global Fund for Children (GFC) works to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. Join us in our mission to power the potential of young people

We partner with innovative, locally-led organisations, helping them deepen their impact and build their capacity for social change. By pairing flexible funding with targeted capacity development support, we help our partners grow stronger and more responsive to challenges on the ground.

Over the last thirty years, we have invested more than $60 million in over 1000 community-based organisations around the world. Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas: education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and freedom from violence and exploitation.

As the Development Officer for Strategic Partnerships, you will join a multinational team of caring and committed individuals who believe in investing in bold ideas to help grassroots organisations deepen their impact and advocate for children’s rights.

We value courage, excellence, learning, partnership, and inclusion, as well as kindness and passion. Our partners’ visions for change inspire all we do. Feedback and learning inspire us to do better, and we strive to be youth centered.

What is the role?
Are you a Partnerships and Fundraising professional, passionate about the potential of children and young people?

Global Fund for Children is looking for a Development Officer to join our global Strategic Partnerships Team in an exciting new UK-based role. Your main responsibility will be to help steward our active relationships with donors and supporters around the world, manage delivery of key grant outputs, and build relationships with philanthropic funders and foundations.

This role will require engagement with our global staff team, alongside senior leadership and key stakeholders, and our expansive network of community partners around the world. You’ll help to develop strategies that build our relationships with key donors, ensuring all our reporting output is of a consistently high quality. This role will have a truly global reach with a primary focus on supporting programming and donor relationships for our work in the UK, Europe and Africa.

You will be passionate about maintaining the quality and performance of all our outputs to donors and supporters, and have a track record of being highly organized, an ability to manage multiple priorities and an ability to work to a deadline, to ensure we achieve our ambitious goals and objectives.

You will be just one part of a growing and extremely ambitious and successful Development, Marketing and Communications (DMC) team based in the UK, US, and around the world. You will play an important part in the successful implementation of projects with our staff team based in more than 20 countries globally – including colleagues from Programs, Finance, Learning & Evaluation, and Safeguarding.

What will you be doing?

• Manage the global calendar of donor deliverables for the Development team
• Consistently create and deliver compelling reports and other donor deliverables, according to our grant agreements, including collecting data, writing content, reviewing financial information, and ensuring compliance details.
• Work collaboratively across the Development team, engaging with key stakeholders, to deliver on strategic goals and KPIs.
• Liaise with Program and Finance colleagues to share grant requirements and reporting expectations, build reports and deliver high -quality stewardship items.
• Work alongside the team to keep an accurate record of donor relationships in Salesforce, including stakeholder information, notes from meetings, reporting and submission deadlines, and correspondence with donor staff
• Build and develop new relationships with prospective foundation donors and foundation fundraising strategy in collaboration with Senior Manager and Vice President for Strategic Partnerships
• Represent the organisation, both internally and externally where opportunities arise, including donor visits, public events, and partner convenings
• Keep abreast and keep the wider team updated of best practices and trends in the philanthropy sector, scoping out strategic opportunities to help us engage new prospective donors
• Contribute to the development of a strong values-based team culture across different countries, areas and streams of work

What are your experience and skills?

Our ideal Development Officer for Strategic Partnerships will have:

• Outstanding organizational skills, including ability to plan, prioritize and manage a varied workload to meet deadlines
• Excellent writing skills, including development of compelling communications to engage donors and prospects
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and relationship building skills with the ability to work across teams and build strong internal and external networks
• Passion for supporting and developing people to achieve their potential
• Experience working in a hybrid setting across a variety of time zones, and the confidence and the ability to work with minimal supervision in a busy team.
• Experience working with a development/fundraising team to deliver financial goals or partnership deliverables.
• An understanding of the funder and wider philanthropy system in the UK, US, and/or globally
• Appreciation for working with community-based organisations towards a shared goal
• Experience coordinating with a diverse range of colleagues to develop concept notes and funding proposals
• Knowledge of children and young people programming and / or experience in the international development sector preferred

What can we offer you?

Our team dreams big.

We work together to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong and valued.

GFC fosters a caring work environment that promotes collaboration, respect, and professional development. We set standards of excellence and quality in our work, firmly believing that children and youth deserve the best we can offer.

We believe that every person has equal rights, and we affirm the diversity that enriches our globalized world. In line with these core values, it is our policy to actively seek diverse candidates from a variety of backgrounds who are committed to Global Fund for Children’s mission.

Our values shape our vision, guide our daily decision making, and signal to the world what to expect when you encounter Global Fund for Children. We hold ourselves to these values to best serve our local partners and the children and youth they support. We attract talented people from all over the world because we believe deeply in living our values.

Salary – UK-based salary range for this role will be £40,000 – £45,000, depending on experience

Weekly hours – 35 hours per week.

Holidays – 30 days annual leave and 8 public holidays. The basic annual leave allowance increases to 35 days after 4 years of continuous employment.

Flexible Working Location – This is a hybrid position that is based in the UK. GFC is open to applications to those who will regularly visit our London office.

Learning – GFC encourages professional development as a part of our culture and values. GFC provides regular opportunities for training, collaboration, and mentorship. Employees may access professional development funds to support continued learning.

Benefits – We strive to build a culture that embraces care and wellbeing. Our global employee benefits include:

• Private healthcare insurance plan with comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage
• Generous paid time off (annual leave, enhanced sickness leave, wellbeing days, sabbatical leave, family friendly leave)
• Flexible work arrangements – remote/hybrid/compressed work schedules
• Pension plan contributions – employees are auto-enrolled on the GFC workplace pension scheme. 8% employer contributions with 4% employee contributions
• Employee Assistance Services
• Team Building and Social Committees

*Other benefits may apply, depending on the location of the employee

How to apply

How do I apply?

In line with our values of courage, passion and inclusion, to apply for this role, please share your thoughts on the following questions along with your CV through the following link: https://global-fund-for-children.breezy.hr/p/9a64cc371bc7

1. What excites you most about this role and how is it directly connected to your skills and experience?
2. What experience of fundraising and strategic partnership working would you bring to this role?

The deadline for applications is Friday, November 1st at 5pm UK Time.

We are excited to hear from you if you have any questions about the role, please get in touch on careers@globalfundforchildren.org

GFC is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members. We particularly encourage applicants from communities that have historically been excluded from philanthropy and from under-represented groups including candidates who are LGBTQ+, from Black, African, and Afro-descendant or indigenous communities, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions, and from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.