UHAI EASHRI - Partnerships and Communications Director

About UHAI EASHRI

UHAI - the East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (UHAI EASHRI) is Africa’s first indigenous activist fund supporting human rights of sexual and gender minorities and sex workers. We fund activists organising in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, and further supports Pan-African organising across the continent. Over the 14 years of its existence, UHAI has funded critical court challenges that overturned repressive laws, resourced pioneering community-led initiatives, and supported documentation, advocacy and organising by sexual and gender minorities and sex workers in the region. UHAI has invested over $15 million in more than 00 grants to more than 700 Eastern African sexual and gender minorities and sex

worker organisations in the 7 countries. We have also partnered with and funded Pan-African organisations and networks allied to our movements. We have been the first funder to most of theser organisations in our region and have sustained the majority of them with successive support over the years. UHAI’s theory of change is based on the belief that in order to achieve equality, dignity and justice for sexual and gender minorities and sex workers across Eastern Africa, we need to have resilient, vibrant cohesive and intersectional organising, that has agency, and that is grounded in political thought. We support movements through providing grants, capacity support, facilitating convening spaces and thought leadership.

The Role

Role: Director Partnerships and Communication

Location: Dominantly Virtual but contracted within the Kenyan laws

Salary: $64,836 – $70,848 p.a

Travel: The role may required frequent travel

Other benefits: UHAI offers attractive benefits to the employees including and not limited to monthly telephone and internet allowances; employers pension and gratuity, comprehensive medical insurance cover, non traditional medical care for self and family, psychosocial support and flexible working hours

Role Purpose

The Director of Partnership and Communications is an experienced, visionary leader and manager who truly believes that sex workers and sexual and gender minorities should be able to live fulfilling, healthy and safe lives of equality, dignity, justice, selfdetermination and agency. They must be committed to working towards the human rights and social justice for sexual and gender minorities and sex workers.

As part of the leadership team at UHAI, the Director of Partnerships and Communications they will help to inspire and motivate our teams across Eastern Africa, shape our culture and role model our values. Within this, they will have a special responsibility to provide expert fundraising and communications advice to support the Executive Director and other leadership team members.

They will support the Executive Director in maintaining existing funder relationships, building new ones; lead UHAI’s philanthropic advocacy to stimulate more resourcing to sexual and gender minorities and sex worker movements in Eastern Africa; and develop a wide-ranging vision for communications across UHAI EASHRI to enable us to meet our vision and mission.

The Director of Partnerships and Communication brings critical knowledge and intelligence on donor priorities, plans and programming, leading in the early identification, assessment, and prioritisation of potential funding opportunities for UHAI EASHRI. They will drive innovation in our external communications, bringing ideas from their own experience and elsewhere to develop creative ways to inform, inspire and engage colleagues.

The Director Partnerships and Communications is an expert professional with strong staff management experience who can inspire, motivate, and challenge the Partnership and Communications team, with significant working knowledge of the non-profit sector, in particular fundraising and communications. They have excellent written and oral communications skills in English (French and/or Swahili proficiency is desirable) and a demonstrated commitment to rightsbased approaches and sexual and gender minorities and sex workers’ rights.

Key Responsibility Areas

a. Leadership, management and staff development

• Lead a proactive Partnership and Communications team that supports UHAI EASHRI with excellent campaigns, events, relationship management and fundraising activities.

• Provide proper supervision and management for all direct reports and lead the establishment and functioning of a strong, effective, collaborative and coordinated team.

• Provides overall direction and priority-setting for the team in such a way that individual strengths and organisational needs are balanced.

• Seeks ways to professionalise and systematise the work of the team to be more responsive, effective, and efficient.

• Identify necessary staff development, career development and succession planning strategies for team members and contributes to their professional growth and development.

• Ensure staffs have the right tools to perform their roles, develop and innovate; and

• Oversee the recruitment and training of new staff under the position’s supervision.

b. Vision, Strategic Thinking and New Initiatives

• Develop the vision for UHAI EASHRI’s fundraising and communications efforts.

• Leads the implementation of strategies to achieve fundraising and communications goals as laid out in strategic and annual plans.

• Develops and oversees implementation of the fundraising and communications annual plan including ambitious target setting, and writes other (strategic) planning documents as needed.

• Incorporates new methods of communication into UHAI EASHRI and stimulates other staff teams to do so as well.

• Participates in affinity groups and membership organisations related to fundraising and communications in order to build partnerships and common cause. Provides leadership in the hosting of any funder meetings/conferences such as the Changing Faces, Changing Spaces Donor Pre-conference.

• Initiates, advances, and oversees special fundraising and communications projects and ensures that they are consistent with our values and our internal capacity.

• Strengthens the role of communications and campaigns for activism purposes, philanthropic advocacy, as well as for fundraising.

c. Sustaining and Increasing funding

• Expands and diversifies strategies to identify, educate, involve, and cultivate existing and prospective donors (institutional and individual).

• Support the Executive Director in cultivating individual donor relationships and giving in the US and Europe.

• Leads the development of growth plans for UHAI EASHRI, through close collaboration with institutional funders and by providing support on opportunities to ensure high quality, cohesive proposals, and reports.

• Develops, maintains relationships with, and solicits major individual and institutional donors.

• Acts as a critical filter for the prospects in funding opportunities, bids, and philanthropic partnerships.

• Coordinate with all other UHAI EASHRI teams as may be required for the support necessary to advance the work for Partnership Development and Communication.

d. Financial planning and Compliance

• Ensure all funder proposals are developed in a timely manner and in compliance with the funder guidelines.

• Ensures that all funder reports are prepared on time and in accordance to the existing funder agreements.

• Ensure that various teams are well informed of the various funder partnerships and funder requirements as they implement work.

• Develops annual Fundraising and communications budget with participation of team members and in conjunction with the leadership Team.

• Monitors Fundraising and Communications team budget.

• Reviews monthly financial statements and facilitates reconciliation of donor gifts made via direct donations into UHAI EASHRI’s accounts (both in Kenya and the US). Prepare monthly fundraising report tracking receipts from institutional and individual funders.

e. Organisational leadership and Management

• Models effective leadership to all UHAI EASHRI’s staff and promotes the organisational vision and values to all employees, serving as a role model for a culture of performance, accountability, transparency, inclusion, and innovation.

• Ensures that all teams are working towards organisational coherence.

• Makes viable organisation-wide strategic and operational decisions.

• Reports in a timely and regular manner to the Executive Director and facilitates its engagement in fundraising and communications.

f. Other duties

• The role holder will from time to time be required to carry out any other duties that are within the scope of the job.

• All staff are expected to demonstrate UHAI EASHRI values and principles in all their professional relationships and in any interactions that may reflect on UHAI EASHRI.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong commitment to and understanding of sexual and gender minorities and sex workers’ rights and ability to articulate this in meetings and events to increase attention to these issues.

• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and a commitment to and passion for UHAI EASHRI’s mission.

• Strong knowledge of philanthropy sector and institutional donor environments.

• Strong strategic thinking and planning skills for developing fundraising and communication strategies.

• Demonstrated leadership and management skills in a multi-cultural setting with proven track record of people and team management and development and establishing a learning culture.

• A proven track record in successfully securing grants from major donors, corporations and/or individuals of wealth.

• Proven ability to analyse external environment as well as regional and global social trends, and in successfully developing and managing external partnerships.

• Experience in establishing a safeguarding culture within organisations, for establishing a safe working environment at all levels, with sensitivity to diverse culture/workforce.

• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to thrive in and contribute to a culture of collaboration and teamwork in a diverse work environment.

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, demonstrating mature judgement, trust and open communication with an ability to develop collaborative and harmonious relationships with internal and external partners.

• Ability to generate respect among peers and staff throughout the organisation as well as funders, grantee partners, movement actors and other stakeholders.

• Expert knowledge in strategic communications for social justice and for a funding and fundraising organisation.

• Knowledge of IT, new media for communications and fundraising and experience managing a communications function.

• Able to engage respectfully with people who have different values and styles.

• Strong sensitivity and commitment to cultural, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic justice.

• Willingness and ability to travel regionally and internationally.

• English fluency required. French and/or Swahili proficiency is desirable.

• Lived experience of resisting injustice and different forms of systemic oppression including but not limited to homophobia, transphobia, whorephobia, sexism, classism and/or disablism, and their intersections.

Education and Experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field and at least 10 years of progressive experience in an international or regional NGO or philanthropy environment with a diverse workforce that includes leading roles in fundraising/donor relationships and stakeholder management/communication.

• Demonstrated experience in supervising and developing staff.

• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing strategic fundraising and communications plans and securing major gifts from individuals and institutions.

Core Attributes

Generic attitudes and behaviours that capture the behaviours that everyone (irrespective of level and function) should exhibit effectively.

• Results Orientation - Able to set and achieve challenging goals. Understands the steps needed to achieve goals and measure their impact. Self-motivated, focused and able to achieve goals within expected timeframes and budget.

• Leadership - Ability to recognize changing conditions, develop alternative strategies, and take appropriate action/decisions. While also demonstrating the skills of effective listening, setting deadlines, effective communication, building relationships, handling conflict and motivating and empowering others.

• Problem Solving - Able to identify issues, obstacles, and opportunities and then develop and implement effective solutions. Remaining positive, open minded, calm under pressure and constructive when identifying and solving critical problems.

• Innovation - We encourage our staff members to develop new ideas – whatever their job area – to make things better or do things differently.

• Teamwork - Works collaboratively and effectively with others across the organisation to achieve common goals. Willingly shares power, effectively gives and receives feedback and shows empathy for others and is inclusive. Participates in building a group identity characterized by pride, trust and commitment.

• Occupational Knowledge - Demonstrates the rights skills, attitudes, knowledge and a commitment to continuous improvement and learning. Able to carry out one’s work with an understanding of the respective narrative (social, political and economic) of any given situation.

How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter as 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., PatJones-CV-072023-UHAI or Pat-Jones-CoverLetter072023-UHAI.

Timeline

Closing Date: 11th September 2023

First stage interviews: TBC Final interviews: TBC

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 UHAI EASHRI’s 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

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 uhai-partnershipcommunications-director@oxfordhr.com in the first instance.

About Oxford HR

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Oxford HR is a global leadership consultancy dedicated to searching for and supporting remarkable leaders and teams in purpose-led organisations.

We understand the nuances of purpose-led leadership because we’ve worked in organisations across the breadth of the sector ourselves. We’ve also worked with such organisations since 1995; so we appreciate just what benefits impactful people can bring.