Business Support Officer

Established in 1977, GOAL is an international humanitarian agency dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and the vulnerable and is currently operating in 14 countries world-wide. GOAL delivers a wide range of humanitarian and development programmes, ranging from humanitarian relief in disaster situations to supporting the development of healthcare services and building sustainable livelihoods.

GOAL has an annual budget of over €160 million and is supported by a range of donors including the Irish Government, UK Government, USAID, the European Union, individuals, trusts and foundations. GOAL values the power of partnership and works with local and international partners to achieve its mission.

Overview of the role

GOAL is looking for a passionate individual to join GOAL’s Global Funding and Business Development Team. GOAL has adopted an ambitious Organisational Funding Strategy that seeks to develop existing and build more strategic partnerships to support its programme portfolio.

The Business Support Officer role provides the opportunity to gain valuable experience working for a dynamic organisation. Reporting to GOAL’s Head of Funding and Business Development, the role will primarily support the Fundraising and Business Development team in its processes and tasks in order to meet departmental and organisational objectives. The Business Support Officer will work closely with an experienced and highly driven team to support the unit in pursuing new funding and business opportunities and to enhance key partnerships. The role will support the identification of funding opportunities, contribute to proposal development activities, and provide important administrative support to the Unit.

Main responsibilities

Research and support activities in new business and partnership development

• Research, track and analyse humanitarian and development donor and funding tends globally.
• Support with desk research and input into the development of country or regional level donor mapping and resource mobilisation strategies.
• Research and produce internal briefs on topics and issues related to new funding and strategic partnerships for GOAL (e.g. donor profiles, partner organisation profiles, briefings for meetings and conferences).
• Summarise key donor policies and papers at the request of the team donor relationship managers.
• Provide analysis, briefings and portfolio summaries for team members and Senior Management attending donor meetings.

Identify and track funding opportunities from a range of sources

• Support the team to gather intelligence to inform the organisation’s business development efforts.
• Identify and track relevant upcoming donor funding opportunities, through desk-based research, advance intelligence gathering, partner relationships, and other available resources.
• Summarise donor calls, analyse donor requirements and share information with relevant staff across the organisation.
• Ensure funding opportunities are maintained and tracked in the funding opportunity tracker.
• Contribute to internal bid review decisions and opportunity capture documents.

Support proposal development processes

• Support members of the team working on key bids to compile and coordinate inputs from across the organisation, draft teaming agreements, proposal development timelines and draft key documents or annexes including past performance summaries and organisational curriculums.
• Support the development, editing, formatting and review of high quality proposals
• Conduct desk research and summarise findings in order to inform and prepare inputs to the proposal development process.
• Ensure effective coordination and collaboration across GOAL’s functions including the technical team, operations department, finance and other regional and country staff.

Support information management, internal business improvement projects and administrative functions

• Provide administrative and coordination support to the Funding and Business Development team, including preparing minutes of meetings, organise and coordinate events or workshops etc.
• Provide support to the team in developing business development tools and resources (capacity statements, briefs, guidelines, summary documents etc.)
• Assist in developing and maintaining the FBD Resource Hub, an online repository of relevant files, documents and tools to support the organisation in its business development processes.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of GOAL’s systems through helping to develop better tools, systems, techniques and strategies for identifying, tracking, and pursuing new opportunities and managing institutional knowledge.
• Support in maintaining databases, spreadsheets and reports (Excel, PowerBI etc.) for the FBD team.
• Represent GOAL in external and meetings as requested.
• Perform other duties and administrative tasks as required.

Requirements (Person Specification)

Essential

• Excellent analytical and research skills.
• Highly capable of writing to a high standard in English and producing reports and materials for various audiences.
• Administrative experience
• Strong IT skills, with the ability to analyse data and interpret statistical information.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work in a team and time management skills.
• Ability to be flexible, work under pressure and prioritise workload according to changing needs and deadlines.
• Enthusiastic, pro-active and a strong desire and willingness to learn
• Educated to degree level.

Desirable

• Familiarity and experience in the international development sector.
• Postgraduate education
• Arabic, French or Spanish language skills
• Overseas experience within humanitarian and development contexts
• Knowledge of large institutional donors
• Proposal development experience.