Programme Manager, Africa Appointment Brief
September 2023
As one of the very first roles in a start-up Foundation with a long-term view, this is a hugely exciting opportunity to develop a strategy, build and manage a portfolio of grants and foster deep relationships with funders, grantees and experts.
If successful, you will lead our work on protecting tropical rainforests in Africa in support of local communities and nature.
This will be a major programme of work for the Foundation, and you will play a pivotal role. You will shape and evolve our strategy, grant-making, and develop our partnerships for long-term, systemic impact in this crucial area.
We are seeking an exceptional Programme Manager — a dynamic, strategic thinker with a clear focus on objectives. This role entails not only developing and overseeing our grant portfolio in Africa, but also shaping a comprehensive strategy that propels sectoral support and nurtures collaborations for sustainable, systemic impact. Balancing the spectrum from broad, systemic change to precise project management — encompassing grant administration, research, budgeting, and progress assessment — will require an outstanding candidate.
To excel in this position, the successful candidate must exhibit self-initiative, navigating a diverse and rapidly evolving environment with finesse and adaptability. Strong communication and relationship-building skills are paramount, given the collaborative nature of our work. As an early-stage startup, we are poised to contribute to enduring change in the sector. We are eagerly seeking an individual who is ready to roll up their sleeves, bring their ideas and experience, and help us grow.
If the prospect of contributing to our mission resonates with you, and you possess the experience and mindset required to help us on this exciting journey, I invite you to connect with us.
Yours sincerely,
Justin Johnson Chief Executive OfficerThe Jacobs Futura Foundation is a newly established philanthropic foundation aiming for lasting impact. It is in the very early stages of start-up but has strong financial backing and will not need to fundraise.
It is planning on granting in the multi-millions of GBP to programmes focused initially on two distinct pillars:
1. Preserving and restoring tropical rainforests around the world for the benefit of nature and the local communities that depend on them, and
2. Ensuring the provision of education and other support to athletes so they can achieve full potential during and after their sporting careers.
The Foundation is committed to long-term impact and as a new foundation we are keen to learn from others and draw on evidence and experience to inform and evolve our thinking.
We seek lasting, systemic change in the areas we target.
We are interested in outcomes and impact in our selected areas.
Our interest is in what will make a difference based on evidence and experience.
But believe change starts on the ground at the local level.
We seek to develop long-term, deep and mutual partnerships.
As the Foundation progresses towards its goals, these guiding principles will continue to inform our strategy, ensuring that our endeavours culminate in substantial, enduring impact.
The Foundation will be made up of a small, lean, professional and high-performing team, based in London.
The Foundation will initially prioritise the identification of organisations engaged in the protection of rainforests for the benefit of nature and communities. It will extend grants to these entities to support the execution of their programs and to enhance their overall impact. Concurrently, during the grant allocation process, the Foundation will endeavor to develop a comprehensive understanding of the sector. This includes gaining insights into its principal challenges and initiating ideas for more sustainable and strategic resolutions to rainforestrelated issues within the African context.
In the forthcoming period, the Foundation’s efforts will extend beyond direct program funding for rainforest initiatives. It will additionally cultivate its repository of expertise and thought leadership. Taking a proactive role, the Foundation will spearhead the promotion of sustainable and strategic methodologies in addressing rainforest challenges.
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together.
Through our commitment to enriching our organisation with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and achieve our mission. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do their best work. We recognise that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive.
Job
Salary: £65k - £80k per annum (depending on experience) and competitive overall package.
Contract: Permanent (subject to 3 months’ probation period)
Location: London but includes some international travel
Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer
Direct reports: None
Purpose:
This is one of the first roles in the foundation and will be responsible for leading on developing the strategy and identifying and managing a portfolio of grants focused on protecting tropical rainforests in Africa for the benefit of nature and communities that depend on them.
The individual will be able to significantly shape the grant-making strategy and portfolio and to foster relationships with funders, grantees and experts leading to long-term impact.
The team is and will remain small, meaning the successful individual will be expected to have a high degree of accountability, able to take responsibility, and to apply an action-orientated, solutionorientated, practical mindset.
The work will range from big-picture - strategic, global, thinking about systems-change - through to practical project management such as grant administration, research, budgeting and progress evaluation, requiring good attention to detail.
To thrive in the role the successful individual will be a self-starter, able to work in a varied, fast-moving, and sometime ambiguous context and with excellent communication and relationship skills.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategy: Develop the Foundation’s Africa tropical forests strategy. Identify where the Foundation can be most impactful in addressing tropical deforestation in Africa including what approaches, which geographies, which partners, which projects. The focus will primarily within the African continent but will also take account of the broader international drivers and solutions.
Implementation: Oversee the implementation of the strategy, including sourcing grantmaking opportunities, testing different approaches and grantees, setting objectives and indicators to measure success, building partnerships and collaborations and tracking progress and adapting as required. The strategy is expected to evolve and develop through continuous learning.
Programme Management: Manage the end-to-end administration of grants management including the development of grant agreements, develop and track a small number of KPIs to assess progress against objectives, contracting and payments for approved grants, conduct reviews of programmes and partners and provide regular updates and reports to the Board.
Collaboration: Lead engagement and collaboration with other key partners to enable a common strategic approach across the wider community to protecting tropical rainforests in Africa, leveraging resources and increasing impact.
Expertise: Keep abreast of relevant developments, evidence and experience, within and outside the portfolio and apply these to support the learning of the Foundation, the evolution of the strategy, the enhancement of impact and the broader knowledgebase of the community.
• Gained meaningful experience in managing programmes or projects in a related area; this could include experience in an NGO, think tank public or private sector, and in nature conservation or rural development.
• Experience of having lived in or worked on the African continent.
• Strong communication skills and excellent oral and written English required, additional language skills an asset (ideally French).
• Track record of building trust-based relationships, with strong interpersonal skills, able to influence others and work collaboratively, uniting groups with a shared purpose.
• Experience in grant management and reporting will be an added advantage.
• A proven self-starter, who works with pace and resilience. Experience of multitasking and managing priorities, thrives on variety of a role.
• A systems-thinker who can take a strategic approach and identify innovative opportunities for impact.
• Entrepreneurial, with a pragmatic and solution/results-oriented mindset
• Passionate about making a difference.
• Has the right to work in the UK.
• A strategist and tactician: a thinker who realises the significance of implementation.
• A keen interest in climate, nature, rainforest, sustainability and a passion for our mission and values.
• Demonstrable commitment to continuous professional development.
If you wish to have an informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact our retained advisors Akinwunmi Akowonjo or Jamila Abubakar at Prospectus on +44 (0)20 7691 1920, or email:
Akinwunmi.akowonjo@prospect-us.co.uk
Jamila.abubakar@prospect-us.co.uk
To apply for the role you can either upload your CV together with a supporting statement (of no more than 500 words) onto the Prospectus website via the link provided.
Please ensure that you have included a telephone number, as well as any dates when you will not be available or might have difficulty with the recruitment timetable.
If you wish to apply using an alternative format please contact Prospectus on +44 (0)20 7691 1920 or email: executive.admin@prospect-us.co.uk
Applications via the Prospectus website should be made at:
https://jobs.prospect-us.co.uk/jobs/185699programme-manager-africa/
At Prospectus we believe passionately that a truly inclusive workplace leads to increased social impact. We are committed to supporting our clients build more inclusive teams. To understand how we are performing, we ask that you kindly complete the brief equal opportunities questionnaire when you submit your application via our website. Please be assured that your responses are kept confidential, separate from your candidate record, are not part of any application you make, and that the consultants never see individual responses to the questionnaire.
Deadline for applications: 6th October 2023
Interviews with Prospectus: 19th – 26th October 2023
Interviews with Jacob Futura Foundation: 2nd – 6th November 2023