Grants and Development Manager

About Mari Research and Development

Mari Research and Development is a non-for-profit civil society organization operating in northeast Syria. It was established in 2018 and registered in Canada and France.

In 2018, a group of educated, dynamic and like-minded youth working in the development sector got together to establish an organization for addressing the most urgent and pressing needs of people in Syria. MRD seeks to build a stable and just society where peace and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms prevail.

In order to promote cohesive and tolerant societies where justice and equality prevail, we seek to promote human rights, and to make them the primary and main drivers of the diverse societies which we target through our work.

The purpose of the Position

The purpose of this position is to support the MRD in strategic and operational stewardship over donor resources by applying a set of relevant systems, policies, procedures and tools to ensure that grants and contracts are donor compliant and best serve the organizational mission.

In addition of establishing the development department in MRD,** this includes preparing the infrastructure and building the team to perform all functions such as monitoring and evaluation MEAL, the IT function, the fundraising and media function.

The Grants and Development Manager is responsible for ensuring program compliance and reporting is in accordance with statutory, regulatory, and internal policies. The Grants and Development Manager will serve as the point person for contract management, regulatory and corporate compliance activities, including research, review of relevant policies, procedures, statutes and regulations, and monitoring activities to support ongoing compliance efforts.

Key Responsibilities

1^st Function) Grants management

The Grants and Development Manager is considered the maestro and the godfather of the MRD’s grants in terms of quality control of the formal and technical design of grants, as well as compliance with the partner’s requirements when implementing, and more precisely, He or She is entrusted with the following tasks:

1. Grant Design: The grant design process begins with the Programs Manager, who in turn provides the Grants Manager with the following:

a. Either a Call for Proposal grant with a project idea.

b. Or the partner’s demand to directly design a project based on an existing idea.

c. OR A basket of ideas (is a plan that can be marketed to partners after converting them into project proposals)

Accordingly, the grants manager’s task is to convert the above inputs into a full-fledged Proposal project proposal, especially the technical elements from it, leading the grant formulation process starting from the context and ending with the budget, taking into consideration arranging meetings with the financial and human resources departments to adjust the budget items in accordance with MRD’s policies, and the Determine a weekly full grant wording as the KPI for the position.

1. Compliance: The Grants Manager, in coordination with the Programs Department, must control all project outputs as stipulated in the agreement. All progress reports and others are sent to the Grants Manager to make a note on them, and they are obligatory for project officers to amend.

2. Focal Point: The grants manager is considered the Focal Point with the partner at the beginning of the grant application phase and until its closure, and here all communications with all departments are with the grants manager instead of directly with the partner.

2^nd Function) MEAL **

The Grants and Development Manager will work on building this section, especially the development of the monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning MEAL policies and procedures manual, and he or she will build the work team and train it to carry out its tasks, follow it up and improve the monitoring and evaluation reports for each project separately.

3^rd Function) IT management

MRD needs to develop a clear plan and policies for periodic reports and needs assessment studies, in addition to digital security, and providing digital solutions to manage the departments of the institution,

This requires the Grants and Development Manager to prepare this section to be handed over to the Information Technology Manager later, but in principle he has to work on the policies of this section.

4^th Function) Media and Fundraising

The Grants and Development manager, in cooperation with MRD’s consultant, should work on formulating a comprehensive media policy, building a team for eMarketing, photography, design and content creation, and developing a follow-up plan to keep donors informed on an ongoing basis of the organization’s activities. In addition to this job, cooperation with MRD’s consultant in training and establishing the fundraising team.

Education

Bachelor’s degree (or 3-7 years of work experience with nonprofit administration, grant writing, or fundraising).

Experiences

1. 3+ years of experience in fundraising, grant writing or grants management.

2. Demonstrated analytical and persuasive writing skills experience as well as superior editing skills, including ability to convey complex information in a clear manner to a diverse audience.

3. Strong administrative skills and self-motivated with the ability to set priorities and manage multiple tasks under minimal supervision in effective and efficient manner.

4. Intermediate to expert skills in Microsoft Office (specifically Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Experience with donor development/CRM software systems a plus.

5. Familiarity and experience working with national, governmental donors.

6. Ability to work under pressure and respond to deadlines without sacrificing quality.