Donor Engagement Senior Advisor - Gulf Region Donors

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The Awards Management Unit (AMU)

AMU has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from government donors for the IRC. AMU is a bridge between donors and the IRC’s work on the ground. The team provides expert technical advice to colleagues delivering our services around the world, ensures consistency and compliance with our donors’ policies and procedures, and manages risk. The unit also supports all IRC staff working on awards from government donors and partnerships.

The Purpose of the Role

Reporting to the Director for Global Donor Engagement, the Senior Advisor for Gulf Donor Engagement will support IRC’s work to deliver its Business Development (BD) Strategy within the Persian Gulf region. The Senior Advisor will lead donor engagement and influence with four key donors: the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD); the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB); the King Salman Relief Center (KSR); and the Office of Development Affairs – United Arab Emirates (ODA-UAE), coupled with providing flexible business coordination for the broader portfolio.

The Senior Advisor will lead, guide and coordinate IRC’s funding-focused engagement across these prioritized Gulf region donors and will provide an internal and external “account management” function to support engagement with these donors. The role is responsible for providing expertise and leadership on donor relations for the Gulf region, and will coordinate with regional, compliance and technical teams on Gulf donors related analysis, business development, and influential engagement around policy priorities.

The Senior Advisor will lead the development and implementation of strategies for proactive donor and partner relationships with Gulf region donors on behalf of IRC. The role will develop and maintain positive working relationships and standards of collaboration with senior colleagues across the organization, including the Awards Management Unit, the broader International Division (CRRD), and External Relations. The role will also lead on institutional/public Gulf liaison on Business Development with the President’s Office as required, including advising the leadership board on relevant trends in Gulf region funding.

Major Responsibilities:

Gulf Donor Engagement

Strategy

• Reporting to the Director of Global Donor Engagement, the role will coordinate, develop, track and deliver comprehensive business development strategic plans for relevant public Gulf donors, with emphasis on QFFD, IsDB, KSR, and ODA-UAE. These will be based on sound research, data generation, donor meetings, and analysis for these priority donors in the engagement portfolio.
• Working with compliance, regional and technical staff the role will review, due diligence and management of new public Gulf (or as required) other global donors assessment processes as identified.

Coordination

• Manage the development of plans for Gulf donor engagement across the organization.
• Coordinate engagement between donors and Regional Vice Presidents, Country Program Country Directors/Deputy Director of Programs, Technical Advisors, etc. as needed.
• Using IRC’s platform (Salesforce), plan, track and maintain a register of public Gulf donor engagement at country, regional and global levels; triangulate information at different levels and ensure staff are well briefed and consistent in their donor engagement and influence.
• Serve as the primary Gulf focal point for business development and awards support teams, working with BD teams ensure bid specific Gulf region donor engagement at the global level is well managed and supported.
• Support the development of materials to ensure those engaging with public Gulf donors are well equipped to deliver concrete outcomes.

External Representation

• Directly represent IRC with Gulf region donor officials up to and including at a senior level, and as needed mobilize senior IRC representatives and technical leaders from relevant regions to participate in high-level events, forums, and panel discussions across the Gulf, showcasing IRC’s impact and added value at key regional engagements.
• Actively participate in donor meetings and engagements to maintain strong, consistent, and well managed donor relationships.

Information and Knowledge Management

• Proactively identify, broker, and cultivate relationships with key officials and stakeholders.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of public Gulf donor strategies relevant to IRC’s work, such as funding priorities, geographical interests and political climate, providing analyses and synopses of press releases, policies and other announcements, and disseminating this information internally.
• Support the AMU/BD Director, Global Donor Engagement to develop and improve public Gulf donor tracking tools and resources to support engagement and relationship building.

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

Job Requirements:

• Experience in humanitarian or development sector business development, donor relations, policy or advocacy, or a combination of these.
• Experience working with or for humanitarian and development donors, particularly in the Gulf region.
• Strong collaboration approaches, in a large organizational setting.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, including development and presentation of briefing documents.
• Ability to work well under pressure in a fast paced and changing environment with multiple stakeholders.
• Good analytical skills and first-class attention to detail. Experience undertaking reviews of policies and reports, producing associated written and verbal guidance to relevant staff.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. Ability to collaborate with others and work as part of team.

Preferred experience & skills:

• Fluent Arabic language proficiency required.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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