SENIOR MANAGER, PARTNER FUNDING

Maliasili is a dynamic and innovative organization that is taking a different approach to drive locally-led conservation impact in Africa. We find the best local African conservation organizations and make them better by strengthening their organizational performance, leadership, and resourcing so that they can achieve greater impact. Our partner portfolio includes outstanding local and national organizations at the forefront of wildlife conservation, land restoration, and coastal fisheries. Our partners are pioneering conservation approaches grounded in community and indigenous land rights, generating economic opportunities from nature-based businesses, and restoring ecosystems across many of Africa’s most important landscapes. 

Since its founding over a decade ago, Maliasili has built a portfolio of roughly 55 partners working across over 64 million hectares of critical landscapes and ecosystems in seventeen countries. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $27.3 million in funding for their work, developed a growing set of tools to help improve their organizational performance, and supported many of our partners to grow their impacts in the field significantly. Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa’s best local conservation organizations, help them collaborate and learn from each other, and scale up their community-based conservation work on the ground and their leadership capacity within the conservation field.

Role Summary

The Senior Manager, Partner Funding, leads three connected strands of collective action and fundraising work. The first is building the methodologies, tools, and training that strengthen Maliasili’s and the Portfolio team's ability to support partners' resource mobilization. The second, equally central, is working directly with partners themselves: troubleshooting fundraising challenges as they arise, designing and facilitating cluster fundraising workshops, and helping partners build robust, realistic fundraising plans. The third is supporting Maliasili's and partners’ donor engagement work, including furthering donor relationships and Vuma Fund positioning, supporting the border shift to “better money” for community-led conservation. Working closely with Communications, Portfolio, and FAD, the Senior Manager also ensures that fundraising methodology and funding-pipeline thinking show up in how partners are supported to communicate and pursue funding, not just in internal tools and guides.

Working under the strategic direction of the Director, Collective Action and Funding, the Senior Manager operates with high levels of autonomy, exercising independent judgment in methodology design, training delivery, direct partner engagement, and select donor relationships. This is a developmental leadership role: as the Senior Manager's capability and tenure grow, the role is expected to progressively take on elements of strategic representation and support for the Director.

Strategic Context

This role supports Goal 3: Improving and Increasing Funding by leading the tools, training, and internal systems that help Portfolio Managers and partners access more and better funding. The Senior Manager will take on some strategic-support responsibilities 

Responsibilities

Fundraising Methodology & Tools (20%)

• Lead the development and codification of fundraising methodologies, tools, and practical guides for the Portfolio team and partners

• Own the fundraising resource library and its integration into the Wezesha Hub and other knowledge-sharing platforms

• Set the improvement agenda for methodology and tools based on Portfolio and partner feedback

Portfolio Manager Support and Strengthening  (25%)

• Design and deliver materials and support that strengthen Portfolio Managers' ability to diagnose and support partner fundraising needs

• Establish and manage a regular cadence of fundraising clinics, office hours, and strategy sessions with the Portfolio team

• Serve as a bridge between the CAF team and Portfolio, ensuring there is clear understanding of the work, progress, and strategy of the CAF team amongst Portfolio team members

Direct Fundraising Support & (25%)

• Provide direct fundraising support to partners on complex or higher-stakes opportunities, serving as a trusted advisor

• Identify and help broker new funding opportunities for partners, connecting them with aligned donors

• Design and lead clustered fundraising workshops that build skills and generate new opportunities

Donor Engagement (20%)

• Support the Director on select donor relationships and represent CAF in select donor conversations as delegated

• Support the Director in positioning and advancing the Vuma Fund, with the Director retaining overall leadership

• Contribute to fundraising strategy discussions and materials in support of the $65M goal

Cross-Team Coordination and Growing Strategic Support (10%)

• Coordinate with Finance and Admin, Strategic Initiatives, Communications, and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning to ensure fundraising systems integrate with organization-wide data and learning platforms

What Success Looks Like

• Portfolio team is equipped with high-quality, well-used fundraising methodologies and training

• Clustered workshops and case clinics result in new funding secured and stronger peer relationships

• Partners report increased fundraising capacity and confidence as a result of direct support

• Demonstrated growth in independent donor engagement and representation, with an emerging capability to deputize for the Director on defined matters

• Strong, trusted working relationship with the Director and the two Senior Manager peers

• Where relevant and of interest, growing contribution to collective action activities (community building, peer learning, or aggregated impact messaging) alongside core fundraising duties

Note on Role Design / Growth Pathway

This role is intended as the primary internal pipeline toward a future Deputy Director-level position. Deputizing and top-tier donor responsibilities are deliberately introduced gradually and by delegation rather than assigned in full from the outset, so the person can build credibility and capability without being placed under immediate performance pressure at Deputy Director scope. Expansion of this role's scope should be reviewed periodically against demonstrated readiness.

Optional Growth Area: Collective Action

The Senior Manager, Collective Action position is not currently filled. Depending on the interests and demonstrated capability of the individual in this role, there is room to informally and opportunistically take on selected elements of that scope over time - particularly community building and partner engagement, peer learning and convenings/workshops, and aggregated impact and collective voice/messaging. Country-level and regional coordination is not included in this growth area.

This is not a formal or expected part of the role at this time and is not reflected in the responsibility weightings above. If it becomes a substantial and sustained part of the role, the title, compensation, and this TOR should be reviewed and formalized accordingly.

Reporting and Supervision

Reports to: Director, Collective Action and Funding (peer to Senior Manager, Grantmaking and Partner Funding, and Senior Manager, Collective Action)

Collaborates with: Senior Manager (Grantmaking and Partner Funding), Senior Manager (Collective Action), Portfolio Managers, Communications team, FAD team