Grants Program Officer

The Organization and Role

About Access Now

Access Now defends and extends the digital rights of people and communities at risk. As a grassroots-to-global organization, we partner with local actors to bring a human rights agenda to the use, development, and governance of digital technologies, and to intervene where technologies adversely impact our human rights. By combining direct technical support, strategic advocacy, grassroots grantmaking, and convenings such as RightsCon, we fight for human rights in the digital age.

About this role

The Grants Program Officer builds strong, trusted and respectful relationships with potential grantees and ensures that Access Now is providing flexible, grantee-driven support to civil society organizations and activists representing communities most at risk of and most harmed by digital rights violations. The Program Officer provides significant strategic leadership of the grants portfolio and leads the development of grants from initial referrals to applications assessments to the development of funding recommendations to supporting grantees throughout the grant period.

The Grants Program Officer also supports the mission/strategy/ key objectives of Access Now by maintaining overall administrative and programmatic flow of the grantmaking processes.

The Program Officer works closely with the Grantmaking Operations Manager, other Grants Program Officers and other programmatic team members across Access Now’s Advocacy, Helpline, RightsCon and Legal arms. The role will also require strong working relationships with operational teams at Access Now. The Program Officer reports through the Director of the Grants Program.

What you will do

• Lead proactive outreach to identify new grantees that are a strategic fit for the Program
• Build deep and collaborative connections with civil society, activists, and other funders
• Identify emerging issues and trends for the Program to support
• Facilitate consultations with other team members at Access Now about regional and issue based trends and potential grantees
• Respond to requests for support and grant referrals received by the Program and carry out background research as needed in order to develop an initial strategic assessment
• Organize initial information consultations and intake with potential grantees
• Provide guidance and support to potential grantees throughout proposal processes
• Process and review funding applications in grants management system, ensuring Access Now has all required documents, and a strong understanding of the request for funding; conduct reference checks, and complete internal and external due diligence
• Provide strategic review and develop funding recommendations for potential grants within the Program Officer’s portfolio
• Support Director of the Grants Program in presenting funding recommendations to senior leaders
• Work with the Grantmaking Operations Manager to structure and design grant contract strategies
• With support from the Program Director, build and monitor the grantmaking budgets and grants tracker to ensure the program has an accurate understanding of committed funds and projected funds and clarity on the status of open grant applications and approved grants.
• Follow grantees’ work throughout the grant period via check ins and reviews of grant progress
• Identify opportunities to support and elevate grantees’ work through blog posts, networking, conferences, connections to other parts of Access Now
• Maintain grantee and other grants program contacts and share regular grants program and organizational communications with grantees
• Review grantee reports, including financial reporting in order to document outcomes for internal/external sharing and complete grant closeout reports
• Support strategic assessment of grantees and portfolio-level assessments of Program contributions and achievements related to Access Now’s mission
• Produce written materials about the grants program and the work of grantees for internal and external audiences.
• Plan engagement of grantees via site visits, RightsCon convenings, and grantee events
• Contribute to donor reports and fundraising efforts of Access Now’s Development Team
• Assist in global implementation of the annual RightsCon summit series
• Perform other duties as assigned

Skills, education, and mindset you will bring

• Minimum 5 years professional-level work experience involving grantmaking, human rights, digital rights or social justice
• Experience with Fluxx and Salesforce
• Knowledge of human rights norms and systems and digital rights policy issues
• Knowledge of digital security tools, resources, and training approaches
• Experience working with and/or in support of grassroots organizations, particularly in constrained or repressive contexts
• Experience working on human rights issues in the Asia Pacific and/or Latin America and Caribbean regions highly desired
• Strong professional networks and a strong track record of building trust and working collaboratively within human rights movements in the Global Majority; and with human rights funders
• Demonstrated commitment to or interest in addressing inequality and historical and systemic discrimination
• Familiarity with grantmaking processes
• Experience with monitoring and evaluation approaches that are well suited to human rights work
• Experience analyzing budgets and financial audits preferred
• Competency in working across and between geographies and cultures, and with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds
• Effective and compassionate written and spoken communication skills and the ability to represent the Grants Program with internal and external stakeholders
• Track record of strong and consistent attention to detail while managing a large portfolio in a fast-paced, complex environment
• Fluency in English required; fluency in Spanish highly desired; fluency in Arabic, Burmese, French, Hindi, Russian and/or other languages is also helpful and preferred
• Appropriate education and work preparation for the role, with bachelor or master degree equivalent in a relevant field

The Details

Location

This is a full-time position, with preference for Latin America, Europe (Belgium, Germany), and New York. The successful candidate must possess the right to work in the location in which they will be based. At this time most Access Now Team Members are working through hybrid office arrangements, combining remote at-home work with intermittent use of offices and/or co-working spaces.

Remuneration

Access Now offers competitive compensation and benefits packages that align competitively with locations and regions around the world. Location-specific examples of initial placement within the salary range for this role include:

• €5,356.00 EUR gross monthly (Belgium)
• $3,987.75 USD gross monthly (Costa Rica)
• €6,075.00 EUR gross monthly (Germany)
• $6,027.00 USD gross monthly (United States)

Benefits for this specific role are tied to the location, and will vary. Regardless of location, all Team Members benefit from a strong global culture aligned around:

• Work-life balance…including a generous paid time-off program between 36 and 40 days annually
• Access to supplemental health care insurance policies
• Professional development and growth opportunities
• Extensive workplace flexibility
• Organizational resilience and support for all team members, including paid family leave and employee assistance programs
• Connection to a diverse, global team of passionate, principled professionals
• Opportunities to recharge (including one month of paid refresher leave after 4 years)