Portfolio Associate Social Impact

Position description

Sint Antonius Stichting Projecten (SAS-P) is a philanthropic foundation dedicated to supporting high-performing organisations that unleash the potential of people living in poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa to make a durable shift to better socio-economic circumstances for them and their families.

We fund non profit organizations working in the areas of health, education, dignified homes and sustainable livelihoods that have a strong track record, can demonstrate meaningful social impact, have a clear potential for scale, and a compelling, ambitious strategic vision.

A SAS-P grant is meant to help these organisations to prove, grow, and scale their solutions and we are providing grants in three portfolios:

●      Incubation Grants – For smaller organizations (with an annual budget of €500,000 – €1,000.000) that have demonstrated meaningful local impact and are in the process of expanding their solution to a broader target population. These organizations are working toward external validation of their impact.

●      Growth Grants – For organizations that have a solution with demonstrated social and scalable  impact, are cost effective and are focused on replicating their proven model to reach a significantly larger portion of their addressable market.

●      Transition to Scale Grants – For organizations with robust, rigorous, independently verified impact data and a proven ability to replicate their model to a significant portion of their addressable market. These organizations are seeking funding to further scale their evidence based solution.

Most of our funding is unrestricted and multi-year. Grant sizes vary between €50,000 and €500,000 per year. We believe in creating minimal burden to grantees in our administrative processes and we make helpful connections. Since 2019 we have awarded 50 million Euros to 122 amazing social initiatives. Per year we aim to make new grants worth ca 10 million Euros.

The foundation is managed by a bureau of four people (soon 5 with you!) and supervised by an independent supervisory board.

It’s an exciting time at SAS-P as we aim to grow our Proximate Changemakers Portfolio and  increase the number of African founded and led organizations and to onboard more organizations from our focus countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Togo, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

About the Role:

We are hiring a Portfolio Associate Social Impact to support the identification, grant making, administration and monitoring of our Sub-Saharan African initiatives (with emphasis on the Proximate Changemakers Portfolio). As the first team member based on the continent, you will bring valuable perspectives, ideas and networks that will diversify and strengthen our portfolio and deepen our impact across the region!

 

Responsibilities include:

Growth of Portfolios of African Initiatives

●      Sourcing of high performing and exceptional African founded and led non profits that are not yet on our radar or referred to us through our existing networks, that meet our criteria and help diversify our portfolios in line with our goals. This includes building and leveraging networks and conducting research to identify promising leads.

●      Carrying out diligence for organizations under consideration based on our criteria. This includes reviewing their submitted (pre-) applications, analysing their strategic plan, impact data and budget and engaging through video calls to understand their model, cost effectiveness and growth potential better.

●      Provide written analysis and recommendations for shortlisted organizations. Contribute to team discussions to ensure a strong, diverse pipeline for final review by the General Manager and final decision-making by the board.

●      Manage communication with applicants and ensure all required information is uploaded on the Application system.

●      Clearly communicate SAS-P’s approach and expectations to new grantees to foster a strong grant relationship.

 

Portfolio and Relationship Management

●      Monitoring a portfolio of about 25-30 initiatives. This includes reviewing milestone and financial reports, relationship management and responding to enquiries.

●      Frequently updating information in the online Grants Management System

●      Compile internal reports, including grantee updates, travel and event reports etc

●      Plan and execute monitoring and prospecting trips (max 2-3 per year), optimizing travel time to meet role objectives

●      Provide support to grantees on a case by case basis, such as making linkages to other grantees

●      or funders.

●      Prepare partner-related content for updates on social media & website.

●      Represent the Foundation at events in Sub Saharan Africa as relevant.

●      Support the team in organizing biennial board partner visits, including handling of logistics.

 

Support Growth and Development of the Foundation

●      Support task coordination through virtual collaboration, supervisor check-ins, and monthly team planning sessions.

●      Support the General Manager with contributing to the grantmaking strategy, protocols and policies

●      Contribute to board memos on specific issues (strategy, sector trends, country updates, etc).

●      Contribute to Supervisory Board meetings if requested

●      Being flexible in accepting and doing tasks that are not described here

 

Your Profile & Qualifications:

●      You have at least 8 years of total work experience, with 5+ years of professional experience in effective poverty reduction programs or a related field. You have a strong knowledge in the context across the African region, and understanding of various evidence-based models in the sectors we work in (health, education, dignified homes and sustainable livelihoods).

●      You have a minimum of 3 years of professional experience in grant making and portfolio management. You understand the uniqueness of unrestricted funding. You are excited to join a lean, flexible, private foundation.

●      You know how to navigate the dynamics of philanthropy, communicating clearly to minimize burden to organizations and managing relationships without raising undue expectations.

●      You have a track record of building a portfolio of NGOs or social enterprises, with strong ability to tap existing networks and build trusted new networks to help you identify leads, understand new markets and find and verify information.

●      You have financial analysis skills, including the ability to analyze budgets, audited financials, balance sheets, and business plans of nonprofit organizations or social enterprises. Experienced in assessing budgets against proposals and impact models, with a focus on gaining clarity and deep understanding.

●      You are familiar with quantitative and qualitative research methods, including cost effectiveness analysis. You know how to work with data around cost per beneficiary and are able to drive an assessment and discussion around scalability of a model and its impact. You know benchmarks on cost and scalability in our sectors.

●      You work independently as part of a remote team with ease. You organize your work effectively to achieve your goals with timely delivery of work products and deadlines. You’re committed to shared goals and collaborate effectively in a virtual cross-cultural team.

●      Written and spoken fluency in both English and French language is a requirement.

●      You have excellent writing and presentation skills

●      You have a strong network of philanthropists/givers and do’ers (NGOs and social entrepreneurs) in Sub Saharan Africa.

●      You demonstrate sound judgement, effective problem solving and decision-making.

●      You know how to work with grant management software, such as for example iFunds or a similar system

●      You communicate in a friendly, honest, and compelling way and it is a pleasure to work with you

●      You uphold personal and organizational values with integrity, kindness and humility

●      You have a Masters degree in International Development, Non-Profit Management, Public Management, Business Administration, Development Economics or a related field

 

Other information

The Portfolio Associate will be contracted via consulting agreement based on billable hours. Both full-time and part-time candidates are welcome to make an application.

This is a fully remote role based anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. Candidates are required to have previous work authorization for the country they wish to be based in.

You will report to the General Manager Philanthropy based in the Netherlands, and work in a committed team of 5, also including a portfolio associate, a controller, and a financial/administrative associate.

The role requires travel within Africa, likely 3 trips of about one week per year or as needed.

Application instructions

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