Grants Manager

About the Role

The Grants Manager will be responsible for ensuring effective grant management, gold standard stewardship and strategic alignment of programmatic priorities and funding opportunities across ClientEarth America’s grants portfolio. They will cultivate trust-based and impactful relationships with funders, identifying uplifts and new opportunities for income generation.

The Grants Manager will work closely with colleagues at ClientEarth Americas, as well as in collaboration with the ClientEarth Group Development team, to develop strategies for the sustainable growth of the portfolio and bespoke stewardship plans for each grantor. They will participate in the implementation of systems and processes that enable effective grant management and compliance. The Grants Manager is responsible for deepening relationships with existing grantors, produce high quality reporting and develop compelling funding proposals.

Grants Management
• Manage a portfolio of grants from key foundations ensuring existing funder relationships are maximized through effective grant management and excellent stewardship. Ensure grantors are aware of project progress, challenges and impact across the full lifecycle, from award through implementation to renewal.
• Produce high quality reports and proposals for existing grantors, coordinating input from ClientEarth Americas Program and Finance teams and ClientEarth Group Development teams to ensure accuracy and alignment with funding priorities.
• Manage grant contracting and compliance when an opportunity is secured, with input from relevant colleagues as needed.
• Work closely with the ClientEarth Group Global Head of Grants, Grants Management Lead, and wider Group Development Department Leadership on the grantor portfolio to ensure effective, streamlined cultivation of prospects and income generation.

Strategy and pipeline development
• Continuously review and optimize the grants portfolio ensuring opportunities are identified and actioned to further align funder interests with funding needs/priorities, and secure additional grants and uplifts.
• Maximize relationships with existing funders by proactively identifying opportunities for deeper engagement, including through shared learning, collaborations and leveraging their networks to open new pathways for support.
• Support the ClientEarth Americas Director of Major Gifts, ClientEarth Group Global Head of Grants and Group Development Department Leadership to develop and implement annual planning and wider fundraising strategies.
• Work closely with the ClientEarth Americas Executive Director and ClientEarth Group Business Development team to identify and establish new and existing funding contacts, and represent ClientEarth Americas at events to create a growing and robust pipeline of donor and funding opportunities.
• Participate in Program team meetings and strategy sessions to develop ClientEarth America’s funding needs and to inform the development of proposals.
• Work closely with ClientEarth Americas and Group leadership to build and develop the forward looking pipeline, to ensure effective, streamlined cultivation of prospects, utilizing the existing network of funders.
• Keep up to date on trends and developments in the philanthropic sector, and ensure these are communicated into internal activities and planning.

Systems and processes
• Provide timely and accurate information to leadership on performance metrics as requested, to enable accurate monitoring and reporting to key internal stakeholders.
• Support the development and improvement of internal systems and processes to enable effective and efficient collaboration with other teams across the organization.
• Develop and implement systems and processes to review performance against annual plans, and to improve best practices around proposal and report submissions.
• Ensure best practice in data management across organizational platforms (SharePoint, MS Teams) and effective use of the funder database system (Raiser’s Edge).
• Effectively manage time and workload to ensure progress against milestones and all internal/ external deadlines are met, and escalate possible challenges in a timely manner.

General
• Undertake any further duties that may reasonably be required of the role.

EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
• Significant and demonstrable experience working in a fundraising, grant management or project management role for a non-profit, private or public entity (essential);
• Significant experience drafting complex proposals for foundations or other types of philanthropic donors and securing multi-year, six and seven-figure grants (essential);
• Significant experience managing a large and complex funding portfolio, responding to competing deadlines and managing multiple tasks and priorities (essential);
• Experience working within and/or in collaboration with international organizations (essential);
• Experience leading the development of grant proposals and reports, including effectively obtaining input from relevant internal/external stakeholders (essential);
• Experience successfully managing donor relationships from cultivation to stewardship, encompassing both personal engagement with funders and/or coordinating the input of colleagues (essential);
• Experience successfully developing and implementing new working processes or systems across a team or an organization (desirable);
• Knowledge of and/or interest in environmental issues (desirable); and
• Experience using fundraising databases and internal information management systems (e.g. Raiser’s Edge, SharePoint) (desirable).

Key Competencies
• Fluent (CEFR level C2) in English (essential) Spanish (preferred);
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills, with ability to foster positive working relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders, including and especially with funders (essential);
• Excellent organizational skills and efficient management and prioritization of multiple tasks and deadlines (essential);
• Strong understanding and ability to analyze budgets and financial information thoroughly (essential);
• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills (essential);
• Ability to make strategic decisions in relation to funding opportunities, ensuring alignment of approach/proposal with organizational priorities and mission (essential);
• Ability to execute work independently and take the initiative when required (essential);
• Strong ability to absorb and understand large amounts of program-related information as part of the proposal preparation process (essential);
• Strong attention to detail and understanding of the importance of providing timely and accurate information on funder portfolios for the purposes of internal monitoring (essential);
• Basic office IT skills (able to use MS Office, teleconferencing (Teams, Zoom) etc) (essential);
• Comfortable with remote collaboration across multiple time zones with counterparts in ClientEarth Group (essential);
• Commitment to ClientEarth’s vision, mission, values, and working style (essential).