Institutional Funding Lead

We are a multi-award winning, creative and innovative organisation with an exciting vacancy to lead War Child UK’s Institutional funding to ensure growth in our restricted funding portfolio. Bringing a strong network of partners, donor relationships and understanding of donor trends, you will play a vital role in reviewing and improving the quality of War Child’s institutional fundraising in the UK and work with our Programmes teams to diversify the scope and scale of new donors and grants. Building on our existing portfolio with FCDO, you will be responsible for the identification and the management of strategic relationships with UK-based institutional donors, primarily the FCDO and institutional foundations. You will maximise the new opportunities brought by the creation of the War Child Alliance and the expansion of our country of operations to help position the organisation for innovative grants and contracts directly with donors and indirectly through consortia.

The main task of the Institutional Funding Lead is to secure funding from UK-based institutional donors. Your primary focus will be the FCDO. You will drive forward dynamic and proactive engagement strategies directly with UK-based institutional donors and indirectly through consortia. The post holder will also develop and support organisational positioning for contracts and grants. This role will introduce innovative and agile funding approaches and models to enhance War Child UK’s competitiveness in a complex donor environment.

If you have the following qualities, we’d love to hear from you:

• Substantial experience of co-creating, leading, and coordinating complex proposal development processes directly and remotely – ideally for relevant donors including FCDO and humanitarian pooled funds
• Strong understanding of donor compliance, with an up-to-date knowledge of relevant donors including FCDO, and humanitarian pooled funds
• Experience in building networks, partnerships, and consortia to maximise programme impact and funding opportunities
• The ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organisation, and to spot and create opportunities with institutional foundations effectively and facilitate increasing access to funding for War Child’s work
• Ability to analyse the donor environment and identify trends, anticipate changes, be comfortable to deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways
• Good knowledge regarding current development and trends in the (international) aid sector
• Experience in leading and delivering donor engagement strategies in the humanitarian sector across multiple countries – ideally in fragile, conflict-affected settings, similar to where War Child operates
• Ability to travel occasionally