Senior Partnership Advisor – International Foundations

At the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), our partnerships with leading International and Danish foundations are growing in numbers and size, and we have ambitions to grow this area further in particular in relation to international foundations. For our Global Foundations team, we are therefore now looking for a Senior Partnership Advisor – International Foundations who can scope, develop and drive these crucial partnerships.

Who are we?

While most funds are raised at country and regional level, the Global Foundations team is accountable for ensuring that DRC has a centralised and harmonised approach to addressing foundation donors and keeping an overview of funding opportunities. The team currently consists of 3 staff mainly focused on Danish Foundations and we are therefore looking to expand the team to also cover foundations outside of Denmark.Together with the rest of the Partnerships, Engagement and Fundraising Division (PEF), the Global Foundations team is working to increase DRC’s capacity and ambition to expand, deepen, and strengthen partnerships and fundraising activities with donors. PEF is responsible for DRC’s global strategic partnerships and engagement with institutional donors (ID), global foundations, and private contributors at a global level. The division is part of the DRC HQ department for Partnerships, Advocacy & External Relations (PAER).

About the job

As Senior Partnership Advisor – International Foundations you will be part of the Global Foundations team working directly with the Head of Global Foundations and the Institutional Donor Team, colleagues based in HQ in Copenhagen, DRC Representations in Geneva, Brussels, and Berlin, as well as in DRC regional and country offices. Your overall responsibility will be to strengthen DRC’s capacity to maintain and grow relationships and strengthen fundraising efforts with International Foundations.

The portfolio of the selected candidate will be more closely defined once a planned mapped exercise has been conducted, looking also at the specific expertise and the preferred duty station of the selected candidate.

You will be expected to take the lead in fundraising processes at all stages, from mapping and scoping opportunities, as well as strategic pre-positioning, through proposal development to kick-off of secured grants. An important part of your role is to lead on partnership engagement in close collaboration with key internal stakeholders.

Main tasks

• Take the Lead on mapping for opportunities with International Foundations, and scoping where needed.
• To develop efforts and initiatives to maintain existing and forge new partnerships with International Foundations to mobilize funds for DRC, with a particular focus on maintaining and building relationships.
• Lead and support a deepening of strategic partnerships between International Foundations and DRC.
• Research, analyse, and follow donor trends and priorities and communicate/advice on strategic entry points and opportunities to managers within DRC.
• Develop clear protocols for sharing information, communicating, and engaging with International Foundations in strategic policy issues across the organisation.
• Provide support and expertise to DRC country and regional operations on partnerships with the International Foundations in question.
• Coordinate and lead proposal and bid development processes to International Foundations according to needs including advice and quality assurance to actual proposal writing together with colleagues from country and regional operations and programme colleagues, facilitation of project kick-off workshops.
• Develop qualitative and quantitative surveys and analyses to feed into donor trends and global donor analyses, lessons learned and other dissemination documents.

About you

To excel in this role, you will have natural communication and social skills, including networking and the ability to influence. You are comfortable navigating internal stakeholders horizontally and vertically, and representing DRC externally with donors, peer organisations and in other forums.  

The role will further require knowledge of International Foundations and a good track record of building and nourishing successful donor partnerships with foundations that partner with the humanitarian sector. This role calls for someone who is both a “thinker” and a “doer” with an ability to work on strategic level analyses while being detailed, as well as result and service oriented.  

All employees should master DRC’s core competencies: Communicating, Taking the lead, Collaborating, Striving for excellence and Demonstrating integrity.

Moreover, we also expect the following:

• Solid experience of working in the development and humanitarian sector, and not least working with foundations. Perhaps you have experience with working in a country/field office.
• Experience with programme development and excellent proposal writing skills; knowledge of grant management and requirements for compliance when working with international foundations.
• Attention to detail when needed and at the same time be able to maintain overview of multiple simultaneous processes. Systematic approach to work.
• A strategic understanding and eye for new opportunities and ideas.
• Experience in international context working across cultures with strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills.
• Good collaborative skills and intercultural sensitivity as well as flexibility to work with different people for each opportunity.
• Experience with networking and representation at all levels. 
• Master’s degree in relevant field of study or equivalent in experience. 
• Proficiency in English is a requirement. French, Spanish and/or Arabic are an asset.

We offer

• A meaningful job in a leading international organisation,
• Flexibility to work from your home.
• A lot of enthusiastic and committed colleagues in Copenhagen and globally
• An informal and supportive work environment

Contract length: Permanent.

Workplace: DRC Headquarters in Copenhagen, or one of our Representations in Berlin, Brussels, or Geneva.

Start date: August 1, 2024, or as soon as possible.

This is a national position for which local terms and conditions apply.

Application process

All applicants must send a cover letter, an updated CV in English as well as a degree certificate.

Closing date for applications: May 26th, 2024. We expect to conduct interviews the week of May 29th but will be interviewing as relevant applicants apply.

Further information

For questions regarding the vacancy please contact interim Head of Global Foundations, Karen Faarbæk de Andrade Lima: [email protected].

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.