Partnership and Strategic Grants Consultant, Ukraine Crisis

at  GlobalGiving

Disaster and crisis response is one of the most visible and tangible ways GlobalGiving delivers on its mission of transforming aid and philanthropy to accelerate community-led change. For more than two decades, we have been shifting and sharing decision-making power to crisis-affected communities through trust-based grantmaking and support.
When crises happen—from a hurricane in Texas to an earthquake in Nepal, to ongoing humanitarian crises around the world—the GlobalGiving community is there to support impacted communities. GlobalGiving responds to disasters and crises through flexible, equitable, trust-based grants to support local and community-led immediate response and longer-term rebuilding and resiliency efforts.
GlobalGiving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund launched in early 2022 in response to Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine and has raised nearly $70 million, making it GlobalGiving’s largest-ever response to a crisis. The fund supports ongoing humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and in countries where refugees affected by the war in Ukraine are hosted, primarily in partnership with vetted, local-led nonprofit organizations.

Consistent with our mission to accelerate community-led change, our disaster response work is centered on the following principles:

• We lead with our values, internally and externally.
• We work in partnership with and aim to learn from and support, local and community-led organizations that put the voice of the community front and center in their program design, development, and implementation.
• We prioritize support that is aimed at underserved, vulnerable, and historically marginalized communities for each particular context.
• We work in partnership with local, national, and international organizations that have demonstrated transparency, impact, and community value in crisis response.
• We seek to minimize unnecessarily burdensome administrative requirements for our nonprofit partners in favor of equitable, flexible, and trust-based grantmaking principles.
• We fund organizations that emphasize strengthening community, economic and environmental resilience, and sustainability.
• We embrace learning, evaluating our impact, and adapting to specific crises and a changing world as needed.
• GlobalGiving goes “beyond the dollar” by connecting partners to resources like digital fundraising, media, and communications training.

SUMMARY

We are looking for a Partnership and Strategic Grants Consultant to support GlobalGiving in implementing our multi-year Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund management strategy. The consultant will support our efforts to build and strengthen relationships with community-led organizations and civil society networks in Ukraine and in the neighboring region.
The consultant will play a critical role in supporting and elevating GlobalGiving’s response to the war in Ukraine, including designing, advising, and facilitating equitable and trust-based grantmaking programs and partnerships supported by this response, including through in-person and virtual networking in the region, and in the provision of administrative and strategic support to team management of this response They will enhance the local and international visibility of GlobalGiving’s work, led by our partners.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

For our team to be a great fit for you, the following qualifications should resonate with you:

• Strong familiarity with the Ukrainian crisis and context, and advanced or fluent Ukrainian and English language competency, are required. Consideration will also be given to strong candidates with advanced fluency capability in English and in another regional language, such as Polish, as well as intermediate to advanced knowledge of the Ukrainian language - but a minimum of intermediate Ukrainian language capability is required.
• Relevant higher education degree(s) in international development, humanitarian studies, communications, social enterprise, crisis management, or related fields.
• Professional references and/or proven experience in philanthropy, charitable and civil society organizations in the international development, humanitarian response, or social impact sector(s).
• Professional references and/or proven experience in relationship building and working in networks and coalitions with civil society organizations in Ukraine and, ideally, Poland, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, Moldova, and/or other refugee host nations in the region
• Experience in grantmaking and/or grant management, as well as project management and administrative support to international, national, or local nonprofit organizations or civil society organizations.
• The ability to think dynamically across internal and external processes and systems, solve problems, and learn on the job.
• Demonstrated passion for working with vulnerable communities, and a commitment to GlobalGiving’s mission and core values.
• Comfort using technology for communications and processes
• Experience working with dispersed or remote teams
• Willingness to travel within Ukraine and the region as security allows, as mutually determined by GlobalGiving, authorities, and the candidate.
• A passionate belief in the mission of GlobalGiving and a commitment to our core values.

Project Timeline: October 2024 - May 2025, with the possibility to extend. The consultant can work remotely in Poland or Ukraine but should be available to work some hours that overlap with the US-based team in the Eastern Time Zone, and be willing and able to travel within Ukraine and the surrounding region as mutually deemed appropriate and safe to do so by GlobalGiving, candidate, and authorities. The candidate must have the legal right to work within their country of residence. GlobalGiving is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
Project Terms: GlobalGiving is seeking an individual contractor who will be staffed through our global talent partner, Globalization Partners, for up to 30 hours per week.

Support to Grantmaking and Program Management: Support and collaborate with GlobalGiving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund Lead(s) to support charitable and civil society organizations (CSOs) working with communities impacted by the war in Ukraine, primarily through the provision of grants, technical support, and resources in support of their work. Advise on partnership development and grant management (including assessing organizational capacity, and reviewing grant applications, proposals, and reports). Conduct outreach, meet with partners, and ensure prompt and effective communication between GlobalGiving and CSOs, including GlobalGiving partners and potential partners. Advise partners (potential and current) on GlobalGiving’s grantmaking priorities and funding timelines. Assist in keeping partner records updated with the most relevant feedback and information shared across the partnership. Provide general administrative and project support as required to support the overall operations and success of the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund and related GlobalGiving business operations. When appropriate, offer guidance to partners on the GlobalGiving platform and GlobalGiving’s key offerings such that partners involved in the Ukraine response may take advantage of all of the resources available to them as active members of the GlobalGiving community. Keep GlobalGiving updated on operational or policy changes affecting CSOs and humanitarian actors in Ukraine and the surrounding region.
Relationship-building and leveraging networks: Create, maintain, and grow meaningful relationships with grassroots and charitable and civil society organizations (CSOs), as well as coalitions, multilayered strategic partners, and networks., Particularly those working in philanthropy, humanitarian, and long-term recovery sectors. Facilitate and participate in relevant meetings and conferences (in-person in the region, and virtually, as required and appropriate), with a focus on deepening GlobalGiving’s philanthropic footprint and relationships in Ukraine and the surrounding region. Coordinate closely with the GlobalGiving team, particularly the Global Grantmaking Strategic Partnerships, Program, and Marketing and Communications Teams to support partner visibility, collaboration, and capacity strengthening. Create opportunities for engaging and listening to local leaders and partners to identify local and community-led organizations on the front line of the Ukraine response.
Localization and collaboration: Co-design and host workshops/events (in person or virtually) for nonprofit partners and other relevant stakeholders on GlobalGiving (including grantmaking procedures, platform, etc) that continuously support the growth and development of local-led, community-based CSOs. Contribute to GlobalGiving’s contextual awareness, including through preparing situational analyses as needed, network mapping, and conducting outreach to partners. Translate relevant material and occasionally act as an interpreter in meetings with fund managers. Proactively identify opportunities for new and deeper collaborations between CSOs, GlobalGiving, and the broader humanitarian sector.
Thought leadership and communications: Participate in and identify relevant events to represent GlobalGiving and/or for greater partner CSO participation, inclusion, and visibility in the humanitarian sector. Develop human-centered content to better elevate the work of partner CSOs supporting communities affected by the ongoing crises in the region. Identify opportunities to elevate the stories of CSO partners responding to the Ukraine crisis. Author engaging narrative reports for donors to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund and Learn library content for multiple audiences (including in multiple languages where appropriate), acting as subject matter expert and representing GlobalGiving at external convenings, including media, sector, and grantmaking conferences, and other relevant gatherings.
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning: support the GlobalGiving Leads of our Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund in reviewing and compiling pertinent data and insights, as well as synthesizing learning to inform future work. This includes compiling feedback from partner meetings, and identifying key insights and themes from reports.