Senior Programme Officer for Women’s Funds

The Senior Programme Officer for Women's Funds (SPO) leads a flagship programme area at Mama Cash. The SPO implements the programmatic policy for the women's funds thematic portfolio through grantmaking and accompaniment. The SPO reviews, manages, and prioritises requests from women's funds seeking funding from Mama Cash from within this portfolio, and strategises with women's funds individually and collectively to strengthen the financial sustainability of the women's funds movement. The SPO may supervise multiple members within the team.
In addition, as a senior member of the Programmes Team, the SPO works with the Director of Programmes to develop broader programmatic policies; builds awareness and understanding about women's funds with external audiences; leads special projects; plays a coaching role for Programme Officers; assists the Director of Programmes in the implementation of Mama Cash's grantmaking processes and procedures; supports the delivery of Mama Cash's communications and development objectives; represents the Programmes Team in public forums and/or funder meetings; and occasionally deputises for the Director of Programmes.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

1. Grantmaking and Programmes

• Identify and analyse regional and thematic developments and trends in global women's philanthropy on an ongoing basis and maintain an expert understanding of the role of women's funds in advancing women's, girls' and trans* people's rights.
• Help set overall programme budgets and manage the budget allocation for the portfolio.
• Develop grantmaking policy, priorities and strategies for the portfolio, based on the Mama Cash framework for women's funds.
• Develop, implement, monitor and evaluate annual plans for the portfolio.
• Administer and oversee all grantmaking tasks for the portfolio, including handling requests for funds, making decisions about which groups to support, how and why, developing grant files and budgets, and conducting analysis, monitoring and evaluation of grants and grantmaking activities.
• Provide accompaniment support to partner women's funds, including strategising with them on building their capacity, connecting women's funds with each other, helping women's funds to build cross-movement bridges, introducing women's funds to new donors, and fostering communities of shared learning among women's funds.
• Develop partnership agreements with selected women's funds to advance shared goals, including conducting joint fundraising campaigns with individual women's funds and/or cohorts of women's funds.
• Prepare written progress reports and recommendations to Mama Cash's Board of Directors including on broader policy direction.
• Build, manage and work with the formal and informal advisors for the portfolio.
• Contribute to the development of improved learning, monitoring and evaluation.
• Lead grantmaking related projects or those to strengthen team policies and practices.

2. Outreach and Communications

• Act as a thought leader by articulating analysis of trends and grantmaking priorities relating to women's funds to outside audiences, including media, donors and various institutions through a variety of methods (conferences, social media, etc.).
• Outreach to current and prospective grantee-women's funds to understand their contexts, objectives, and to identify potential new grantee-women's funds.
• Build and maintain relationships with individual and institutional donors as necessary.
• Represent Mama Cash externally.
• Assist the Communications and Development teams in preparing communications materials, reports and proposals.
• Coordinate linking opportunities between women's funds and other actors, including other women's funds and donors.
• Promote knowledge of women's funds within Mama Cash through social media, information sessions and presentations by visiting women's funds.

3. Management and Supervision

• Provide support to the Director of Programmes through advising about staffing, volunteers and procedural issues, and deputise where needed.
• Supervise, coach and provide guidance to members of the Programmes team as needed, including external consultants.
• Support the Director of Programmes in programme budgeting and budget monitoring process.
• Manage some fiscal responsibilities.

KNOWLEDGE, COMPETENCIES AND EXPERIENCE

• Strong interest in the fields of women's human rights, women's philanthropy, and a commitment to the mission and vision of Mama Cash.
• In-depth knowledge of women's human rights, women's rights movements and the contexts, networks and work of women's funds.
• Minimum 5 years substantive professional experience working for women's rights. Experience working with, or funding, women's funds preferred.
• Experience raising money for women's rights and knowledge of institutional donors that fund women's human rights.
• Strong understanding of life stages of social justice organisations, and experience in building organisational capacities (including in the areas of board and governance, leadership and staffing, fundraising from individuals and institutions, infrastructure systems, and marketing and communications).
• Good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of women's funds.
• Strong programme management and organisational skills, including an attention to detail and the ability to manage complex tasks, plan and monitor, meet deadlines and motivate others to do the same, and work well across different team functions.
• Superior communications skills including strong writing, negotiation and presentation skills and the ability to translate complex ideas to different and non-expert audiences.
• Demonstrated bilingual fluency in oral and written English and at least one other language relevant to Mama Cash's work.
• Strong interpersonal skills including sensitivity and appreciation for diverse viewpoints and different communication styles in a politically and culturally diverse environment.
• Ability to perform analytical and researched work and communicate findings to a range of audiences.
• Well-developed leadership and people skills, with a demonstrated ability to support and encourage team members. Supervisory and management experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and show creativity in solving problems.
• Ability to interact with staff at all levels of the organisation.
• Numerical proficiency and comfort with managing a large budget.
• Computer literate (proficient in MS Office, familiarity with database programmes). A Masters degree in the social sciences or related field is strongly preferred (such as gender studies, anthropology, sociology or international development).
• Previous experience in the global south and east preferred.
• Substantive knowledge of and familiarity with grant making processes and procedures preferred.

Are you intersted in this position?
Both a letter of motivation and CV (resume) need to be submitted in English and stating number 5000, to hrm@mamacash.org.

Mama Cash welcomes applications from around the world. The job will initially be located in Amsterdam, but with the prospect of working elsewhere after some years if applicable.

For more information please contact our HR advisor H. Timmer viahrm@mamacash.org