Alfanar Jordan Portfolio Officer

Alfanar Jordan Portfolio Officer

Job Description

Salary: Competitive, based on experience

Reporting to: Jordan Program Manager

Starting Date: August 2024

Duration of Contract: 12 months, renewable

Years of experience: More than 6 years of experience

Do you believe in the power of social enterprise to create meaningful and scalable social change in disadvantaged communities in the Arab region? Are you looking to influence a movement that is backing social change and transforming lives across the Arab world? Then you should take a look at Alfanar.

About Alfanar

Launched in 2004, Alfanar is the Arab region’s first venture philanthropy organisation. Alfanar is a UK-based charity with operations in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan that aims to transform the lives of disadvantaged children, youth and women across the Arab world by funding and strengthening ambitious social enterprises responding to pressing needs, especially in education, youth employment and women’s economic empowerment.

Alfanar provides tailored grants along with management support, training and access to markets to growth stage social enterprises, enabling them to achieve greater financial sustainability and to scale their impact. Alfanar’s highly engaged venture philanthropy approach applies the principles of private sector investment to charitable giving. It strives to deliver social returns that are sustainable, scalable, and game changing.

Alfanar provides capable and qualified candidates a rare opportunity to help strengthen and scale innovative social enterprises (SEs) across the Arab world.

Job purpose

The Portfolio Officer will play a crucial role in managing and optimizing the Alfanar Jordan’s portfolio of social enterprises’ social and environmental impact, financial returns and ensuring that resources are effectively deployed to create meaningful, positive change, with the support of Jordan Program Manager. The Portfolio Officer will be responsible for up to 6 investees at the same time.

The Portfolio Officer will be trained on all of Alfanar’s methodologies and tools, including our unique impact management approach. Through this Program, the Portfolio Officer will contribute to the growth of impactful SEs, supporting them in scaling their impact and becoming more financially sustainable.

Duties and responsibilities

Investment Management

Mentoring and introducing investees to technical experts and mentors via Alfanar’s formal 12-module training program which includes SWOT analysis, review of business model, organisational restructuring, cash flow projections, tailored financial support, marketing and communication support. This also involves:

1. Sourcing, selecting and conducting due diligence on new investments
2. Designing the pilot year and long-term investments

Investment Strategy Development

Develop and implement an investment strategy or a business plan that aligns with the social enterprise’s philanthropic mission and impact goals. The strategy should aim to generate a financial return while maximizing positive social and environmental impact.

Business Management Support:

1. Support your portfolio of social enterprises with capacity building by delivering the modules of Alfanar’s curated ASSET program that will contribute to optimizing their operations and strengthening their financial sustainability efforts.
2. Schedule monthly meetings and weekly check-ins with every enterprise from the portfolio.
3. Following up on execution of the SE business plan and meeting Impact KPIs

Communication, Business Development and Fundraising

1. Represent Alfanar in events related to this program with ecosystem players, partners and donors to raise the profile of Alfanar and of venture philanthropy in Jordan.
2. Gather content from your portfolio to be used in Alfanar’s comms and marketing campaigns. Material includes photos, testimonials, case studies and interviews with enterprises’ teams and beneficiaries.
3. Share interesting and important updates from your portfolio of social enterprises with Alfanar’s comms team to be included in our monthly Newsletters

Monitoring & Evaluation, and Donor Reporting

1. Produce regular reports and communicate the impact achieved by the social enterprises.
2. Contribute to setting the financial, social, and organizational key performance indicators (KPIs) for the social enterprises’ pilot and long-term investment
3. Handle all donor-related reporting activities for donations that are restricted to specific investees
4. Oversee the results of the KPIs and contribute to any remedial actions

Qualifications

• More than 6 years of experience in portfolio management, NGOs, social entrepreneurship, mentorship
• Experience in mentorship and training of entrepreneurs and/or in international development and monitoring & evaluation is preferred
• Excellent report writing skills
• Proven skills in critical thinking, assessment and analysis
• Self-motivated, autonomous and pro-active personality, able to work in a small team and in a fast-paced environment, on both strategic and hands-on topics
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective relationships
• Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills
• Excellent organizational skills with demonstrated ability to execute projects on time
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Fluent in English and Arabic