May 2022
Portfolio Funding Director
About Maliasili Maliasili is a dynamic and innovative organization that is taking a different approach to drive conservation impact in Africa. We find the best local African conservation organizations and make them better by strengthening their organizational performance, leadership, and resourcing so that they can achieve greater impact. Our partner portfolio includes outstanding local and national organizations working at the forefront of wildlife conservation, land restoration, and coastal fisheries. Our partners are pioneering conservation approaches grounded in community and indigenous land rights, generating economic opportunities from nature-based businesses, and restoring ecosystems across many of Africa’s most important landscapes. Since its founding over a decade ago, Maliasili has built a portfolio of roughly 30 partners working across over 35 million hectares of critical landscapes and ecosystems in seven countries. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $15 million in funding for their work; developed a growing set of
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
tools to help improve their organizational performance, and supported many of our partners to significantly grow their impacts in the field. Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa’s best local conservation organizations, help them collaborate and learn from each other, and scale up their community-based conservation work on the ground and their leadership capacity within the conservation field. Maliasili’s 2025 strategic plan describes an ambitious growth trajectory focused on tripling our portfolio of partners, expanding our geographic reach, and catalyzing a new generation of African conservation leadership. A key plank of our strategy is to step up Maliasili’s role in mobilizing resources to support our growing portfolio, while influencing a shift in conservation funding towards greater and better investment in local organizations.
The Role Role:
Portfolio Funding Director
Location:
A remote, work-from-home position, but Maliasili has office space in Nairobi, Kenya.
Reports to:
CEO
Salary:
Competitive
Role Summary The Portfolio Funding Director will play a pivotal role in delivering on the goals of Maliasili’s 2025 strategic plan and in contributing to the overall leadership and impact of the organization. The Portfolio Funding Director will lead Maliasili’s efforts to mobilize more funding for its portfolio and to build partnerships that result in improved overall funding practices that support local African organizations’ growth and impact. Maliasili’s intent in this area of
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
work, and the overarching aim of this position, is to influence a transformation of conservation funding in Africa and beyond towards significantly greater investment in outstanding local conservation organizations. The Portfolio Funding Director will lead this evolving and ambitious body of work. Reporting to the CEO and working closely with Maliasili’s portfolio, financial management, and communications teams.
Responsibilities • Leading Maliasili’s efforts to mobilize funding for its growing portfolio, supporting portfolio partners’ growth and impact goals, with a goal of $40 million generated in total for partners by 2025. This will include, specifically, developing new pooled funds aligned with Maliasili’s portfolio and drawing on the lessons from piloting the Maasai Landscape Conservation Fund, which was launched in 2020. • Leading Maliasili’s efforts to advocate for improved funding practices in support of local conservation organizations in Africa. This will include building the necessary partnerships and collaborations with donors and INGOS to achieve improvements in African conservation funding at a systemic level.
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
• Working closely with Maliasili’s communications team to make the case for greater investment in local organizations through research, events, outreach and other communications and advocacy efforts. • Participating in Maliasili’s Senior Management Team, with key responsibilities for helping to shape the growth, strategy, planning, and culture of the organization. This position requires outstanding leadership, communications and process management skills, and a creative and entrepreneurial outlook.
Candidate profile • Outstanding skills in developing relationships and facilitating partnerships with diverse individuals and organizations. • Experience with non-profit grant management or grant-making, including grant maker funding systems and practices. Experience with development of funding vehicles that pool philanthropic capital is a plus. • Aptitude for designing and facilitating collaborative processes that harness the energy and skills of different organizations towards achieving largescale change. • Experience working with (potentially as a funder) or for grassroots African civil society organizations. Experience in the conservation and natural resources sector is a plus. • Passion and vision for supporting and strengthening outstanding African conservation organizations, and improving their access to capital to support their growth and impact. • Strong written and oral communications skills.
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
• A creative, problem-solving mindset, ability to work independently as part of a remote, diverse, and growing team; and sense of humor. • Minimum of 10 years of experience in civil society organizations and/or grant making. Maliasili offers a competitive package of compensation and benefits and is committed to promoting diversity and equity in compensation irrespective of geography or nationality, as described in our 2025 Strategic Plan. Maliasili also offers a flexible and dynamic work environment and an organizational culture defined by our commitment to our partners, constant learning and improvement of our work, excellence in teamwork and execution, and ambitions to maximize our impact while having fun doing it. Applications from nationals of African countries are strongly encouraged. This is a remote, work-from-home position, but Maliasili has office space in Nairobi, Kenya.
How to Apply Please provide a CV and cover letter in two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit. The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-052022-Maliasili or PatJones-CoverLetter-052022- Maliasili.
Selection process All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.
Equality Statement Equality and diversity are at the core of Maliasili values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.
Queries Timeline Closing Date: First stage interviews: Final interviews:
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12th June 2022 June 2022 July 2022
Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at maliasili@oxfordhr.co.uk in the first instance.
About Oxford HR Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy. Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director
of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.
OXFORD
LONDON
AMSTERDAM
NAIROBI
46 Woodstock Road
5 Tanner Street
Korte Schimmelstraat 12
Workify Africa
Oxford
Bermondsey
1053 SZ
ABC Place
OX2 6HT
London
Amsterdam
Waiyaki way
SE1 3LE
Nairobi
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The Netherlands
Kenya
+44 (0) 1865 985 457
+44 (0)20 7939 7451
+31 (0) 621 153 452
+254 (0) 797 233 217
www.oxfordhr.co.uk | Company No. 6456325
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Maliasili | Portfolio Funding Director