Title:                Grants Manager

Location:         Sanaa and/or Aden, Yemen

Reports to:       Deputy Country Director

Staff directly reporting to this post:  Grants Coordinator and Awards and Communication Officer

About RI

Relief International (RI) is a leading nonprofit organization working in 16 countries to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty.

Relief International combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach — which we call the RI Way—emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.

Relief International includes the four members of the RI Alliance in the USA, UK, France, and Belgium.  Under our alliance agreement, we operate under a single, shared management structure with one CEO and one Board of Directors.

About our Programs

RI is active in 16 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.  Often, RI is the only organization providing assistance to highly vulnerable communities. 

• RI employs 7,000+ staff and auxiliary workers
• 97% of staff are in-country nationals
• We only have some 90 ex-pat staff out of 7,000+
• RI spent $125 million in 2019 on our programs.

RI invests in four broad program sectors:  Economic Opportunity, Education, Health, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).  We design our programs to incorporate The RI Way:  local participation, integrated programming, the development of civic skills, and partnerships including with local NGOs, governments, and the private sector.

RI supports solutions that reinforce and improve upon existing in-country systems. Where such systems do not exist or are chronically underperforming, RI’s crisis response lays the foundation for long-term, sustainable change. 

Summary

The Grants Manager helps ensure compliance with donor requirements at all stages of the project lifecycle and facilitates effective management of RI Yemen’s grants in coordination with other departments (e.g., Programs, Technical Units, Finance, Operations). This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring timely and quality reporting to donors, facilitating grant opening and closeout processes, advising on donor rules and regulations, coordinating proposal development processes, and capacity building of staff.

Responsibilities and Tasks

Grants Management & Compliance

• Advise program teams, support departments, and implementing partners on donor rules and regulations as well as RI’s internal requirements and actively promotes increased awareness of key compliance issues across the organization.
• Ensure the submission of high-quality narrative reports to donors by reminding the program teams about upcoming deadlines and reviewing and editing reports in accordance with donor requirements and RI writing guide.
• Organize grant opening meetings with the participation of program and support departments to develop a common understanding of the programmatic, operational, and financial aspects of a new grant as well as knowledge of our contractual requirements.
• Organize grant closing meetings to facilitate a timely closeout of a grant, support full expenditure of the budget, and ensure that all contractual obligations will be met (e.g., final report, asset disposal).

• Organize monthly grant review meetings with representation from all relevant departments to review progress towards programmatic and financial targets (including BvA review), facilitate collective problem-solving to avoid delays in program implementation, and allow for early identification of modification requests.
• Coordinate the preparation of modification requests for donors, including proposal revision, budget realignment, and other changes, in compliance with donor guidelines.
• Liaise with the Middle East regional team on all grants management matters such as reviewing grant agreements, obtaining grant codes, requesting waivers and derogations, etc.

• Maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date filing system on all aspects of grants management.

Proposal Development

• Coordinate proposal development processes in country, including reviewing and improving draft proposals and concept notes, acting as the lead writer for some opportunities, and addressing feedback from the country management and regional team.
• Ensure that the entire proposal package adheres to donor guidelines and meets the selection criteria.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the country fundraising strategy, including conducting donor mapping, researching donor priorities and interests, and identifying new funding opportunities.
• Build the capacity of RI staff on proposal development by sharing insights on how to produce winning proposals and conducting training donor specific guidelines and templates, etc.

Communication

• Lead on ensuring collecting, collating and compiling communication material on RI Yemen to input into RI Middle East Intranet, RI external communication and Donors’ Reports or Communications requirements etc.

Coordination

• Supporting the Country Director and Deputy Country Director in donor relations and other relevant stakeholders when required.
• Contribute to strategic planning exercises and other mission program exercises.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• At least 5 years of progressive experience in grants management and proposal development in international relief or development programs, including field experience.
• Excellent writing skills in English at a native-speaker level and demonstrated ability to write and edit reports and proposals under tight deadlines.
• Strong knowledge of the rules and regulations of major institutional donors such as US Government, ECHO, DFID and UN donors.
• Experience conducting capacity building activities and enthusiasm to share knowledge and information with others.
• Working knowledge of budget development and management.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively with colleagues in a multi-cultural setting.
• Ability to work in unstable security environments
• Ability to work independently, set priorities, and manage time efficiently.
• Demonstrated leadership and management skills, including ability to give effective feedback and to guide and mentor direct reports.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. 

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Relief International is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. 

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Relief International (RI) is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to RI’s Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
 

RI Values: 

We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities.

We value:

• Inclusiveness
• Transparency and accountability
• Agility and innovation
• Collaboration
• Sustainability

How to apply.

• To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button in the job advert page
• You will be asked to upload a CV and Cover Letter.  The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages long and explain why you are interested in this post with Relief International and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

Closing date. Please apply immediately we will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis, therefore may withdraw the position for the job board closing date.

Due to limited resources, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Note to external agencies, we will not be accepting CVs from third parties.

Relief International is committed to protecting our staff and the communities we work with from abuse and harm including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

All staff are expected to abide by our Code of Conduct.

Recruitment to all roles in Relief International include a criminal records self-declaration, references and other pre-employment checks, which may include police and qualifications checks.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Relief International is committed to diversity and gender equality, we strongly encourage applicants from the global south and female candidates to apply.