Regional Business Development Coordinator for Latin America & the Caribbean

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

**Temporary position for 6 months to cover maternity leave.**

Role Purpose

The Regional Business Development Coordinator coordinates the design, negotiation and management of proposals, consolidating timely reports to donors and guaranteeing overall donor compliance. Contributing to enhanced quality of grant management in the region, by providing proactive support and advice to countries and Regional Office (RO), liaising with National Office partners on regional office grants and ensuring data quality in corporate systems.

Additionally he/she contributes actively to local fundraising initiatives of the Country Offices: account management of regional corporate partnerships and encouragement and guidance of Country Offices related to individual giving actions. He/she is responsible for supporting the implementation of the Regional Resource Mobilization Strategy and for providing intelligence, technical backstopping and customer relations management to enable countries to increase and diversify their income portfolio.

Dimensions of the Role

• Ensure compliance with Plan’s corporate standard and donor guidelines for grants management and corporate partnership management in the region.
• Coordinate systematically with NOPD, NO Resources Mobilization Team and ROA program and influencing team for the management of regional grants and opportunities.
• Provide guidance to Country Offices and ROA team members related to relevant decision making and implementation of Resource Mobilization initiatives (Institutional donors, corporate donors and individual giving).
• Implement trainings and workshops (virtual and/or on site) related to resource mobilization topics.
• Coordinate actions to guarantee correct use of Corporate Resource Mobilization Systems (SAP, CRM, others).

Accountabilities

Ensure compliance with Plan’s corporate standard and donor guidelines for grants management and corporate partnership management in the region.

• Coordinate the Fund Approval Document (FAD) development, approval and modification process, ensuring involvement of key staff as required and ensuring correct registry of project documentation.
• Monitor high value grants (above EUR 1 million) for compliance with donor and plan procedures.
• Monitor the mainstreaming of corporate standards for grants management in the region.
• Ensure compliance of Country Offices teams with the internal grant approval process, including the consistent implementation of approval limits.
• Develop Due Diligence reports in line with agreed format for key new regional donors.
• Coordination and following up project planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of projects regarding the commitments with donors to guarantee overall donor compliance.
• Strengthen Plan´s knowledge management for Resource Mobilization through systemic documentation and dissemination of policies, procedures, and best practices.

Coordinate systematically with NOPD, NO Resources Mobilisation Team and ROA program and influencing team for the management of regional grants and opportunities.

• Liaise with internal stakeholders (Programs and Finance) in the Regional Office to ensure quality checks and timely feedback to multi-country proposals and single-country proposals that require regional approval.
• Identify opportunities for presenting proposals or developing alliances and analyze technical, administrative and financial conditions to present the proposal.
• Support program and resource mobilization teams in regional proposal development.
• Propose alternatives and actions for sustainability of the regional projects, ensuring their viability and improving the approval probability.
• Act as a key contact for NOPD and NO resource mobilization team for the management of regional grants and opportunities.
• Ensure that all grant related issues and concerns are addressed on time and in an efficient manner.
• Support regional emergency response- support in coordination of meeting between NOs and COs, development of FOAs and any other issue that arises.
• Keep oversight of all regional office grants, their status (funded, rejected, under development etc) as well as their status during implementation phase. Raise alarms to ROA team members highlighting bottlenecks and possible solutions.

Provide guidance to Country Offices and ROA team members related to relevant decision making and implementation of Resource Mobilisation initiatives (Institutional donors, corporate donors and individual giving).

• Provide CRM usage performance’s reports for decision making.
• Supports the data gathering process for, and development of, quarterly and the Year to End Resource Mobilization report (e.g. Grants Pipeline Management, Grant Performance, Benchmarking Reports, local income, etc.) and the development of the country profiles for program funding gaps.
• Ensures regular updates of the Resource Mobilization Workspace (library) in the Intranet – this includes cleaning old files and uploading new relevant information to support CO´s resource mobilization efforts
• Act as a help-desk for procedural, policy questions, best practice questions on Resource Mobilization from CO clients – this includes referring CO clients to the right policies, processes, and guidance liaising with relevant parties to obtain answers, and systematizing inquiries in a FAQ to streamline the process.
• Upkeep of RM Network mailing and contact lists: ROA RM Grant Team, ROA RM Managers, ROA RM Grant Controller Team and ROA RM Corporate Team.
• Supports Country Offices for the implementation of Market Studies.
• Supports the process of definition of Country Office’s business plans for local fundraising.
• Track CO responses to call for proposals and provide technical support especially about donor’s guideline questions.

Implement trainings and workshops (virtual and/or on site) related to resource mobilisation topics.

• Provide guidance to Country Offices and ROA team members related to Individual Giving (includes elaboration of manuals, guidelines, tools and other) and Corporate Partnerships.
• Implement webinars, trainings and workshops related to resource mobilization topics (virtual and/or on site).

Coordinate actions to guarantee correct use of Corporate Resource Mobilization Systems (SAP, CRM, others).

• Ensure the correct set-up of FADs and grants in Plan’s corporate systems including reconciliation and flagging inconsistencies of grant expenditure. Coordinate the closing of FADs.
• Ensures data consistency across different corporate systems (including SAP).
• Act as the point of contact for all administrative CRM inquires including account set-up, password re-sets, etc.
• Lead the adoption process of Resource Mobilization systems through capacity building and user feedback for constant improvement.

Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Key relationships

• • CO: The position will collaborate with technical program and resource mobilization teams (grants and marketing).
  • RO: Regional Finance Manager, Regional Program Team, Regional Deputy Director, Regional Director, Head of Business Development, Regional Communications Manager
  • NO: Program Officers and Grant Advisors
  • IH: Institutional Funding Team, Global Partnerships Team
  • EXTERNAL: Institutional and Corporate Donors and Potential Partners.

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Essential

• More than 5 years of proven experience in this area.
• Bachelor’s degree of Business Administration, International Affairs and/or International Cooperation area or other related fields.
• More than 3 years of proven experience in grants management.
• Proficiency in MS Office (MS Excel, MS Word and MS Outlook, in particular).
• Experience as end user with corporate systems such as SAP, CRM.
• Excellent time management skills and ability to multi-task and prioritize work.
• Attention to detail and problem solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organizational and planning skills in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong understanding of international aid market in Latin America and working .experience with potential donors in the region.
• A working knowledge of varied donor requirements and formats pertaining to results frameworks, including: Results Based Management or other Logical Frameworks.
• Bilingual capacity in English/Spanish is a must.

Desirable

• Proven work experience in regional contexts.
• Experience with local fundraising actions (corporate or individual donors).
• Outstanding IT skills
• French or Portuguese is a plus.

Plan International’s Values in Practice

We are open and accountable

1. Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
2. Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
3. Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
4. Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
5. Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We strive for lasting impact

6. Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
7. Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
8. Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
9. Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We work well together

10. Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
11. Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
12. Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
13. Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are inclusive and empowering

14. We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
15. We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
16. We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

Physical Environment

Modality of work:  Remote working / working at home. Eventual travels to countries or NOs to coordinate and negotiate proposals. 

Level of contact with children

Low contact: No contact or very low frequency of interaction.                                                                                          

Location: México, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, República Dominicana, Perú, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia y Brasil

References will be taken and background and anti-terrorism will be carried out in conformity with Plan International Child Protection Policy.  Plan International operates an open opportunities policy and actively encourages diversity, welcoming applications from all areas of the international community.