Fundraising & Positioning Manager
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Role description
The
Fundraising & Positioning Manager
is responsible for generating funding for Acted Ethiopia by strengthening donor positioning, expanding external engagement, and ensuring disciplined, high-quality proposal delivery. The role combines external access, strategic positioning, and pipeline management to convert funding opportunities into successful projects.
The role is a proactive, externally driven function that positions Acted within the Ethiopian donor and partner ecosystem, leveraging relationships, evidence, and structured engagement with priority donors, government, and partners to increase funding opportunities and improve win rates. The role requires a high level of autonomy and ownership while working under the strategic direction of the DCD, with a clear focus on external engagement, donor positioning, and funding generation.
The role exists to:
Unlock funding
by proactively identifying, positioning, and converting opportunities into competitive proposals;
Strengthen Acted’s positioning and visibility
with priority donors, government, and partners;
Diversify the funding portfolio
, including institutional donors, climate finance, private sector actors, and foundations;
Leverage external relationships and local access
to build partnerships and consortium opportunities;
Ensure disciplined pipeline and proposal management
to improve conversion and reduce missed opportunities.
Success in this role is measured by:
The
quality and timeliness of submissions
;
The
strength and focus of the funding pipeline
(priority donors, active opportunities, clear next steps);
The level and impact of
donor and partner engagement
;
The
conversion of opportunities into secured funding
;
The development of
new and diversified funding streams
.
2. Key Responsibilities
2.1 Strategic Positioning, External Relations & Visibility
Build and maintain strong working relationships with priority donors, UN agencies, INGOs, government counterparts, and national NGOs, ensuring Acted has consistent access to decision‑makers and early visibility on funding opportunities.
Support the CD/DCD in strategic engagement with senior stakeholders by preparing briefings, key messages, and follow‑up actions, while leading the day‑to‑day management of relationships to ensure continuity, responsiveness, and progress on agreed actions.
Lead or coordinate Acted’s participation in clusters and coordination platforms, ensuring active contribution and systematic identification of funding opportunities, partnerships, and sector priorities.
Translate all external engagement (meetings, clusters, donor interactions) into concrete pipeline opportunities, with clear follow-up actions, ownership, and alignment with funding priorities.
Conduct ongoing analysis of donor trends, operational gaps, and emerging needs, and translate these into clear positioning messages and differentiated funding angles for validation with the DCD.
Coordinate and manage donor communications, engagements, and visits, ensuring all interactions are well-prepared, consistently messaged, and directly contribute to advancing funding opportunities.
Lead operational follow‑up on government engagement, including coordination of required documentation (such as Letters of Support), ensuring alignment with national priorities and supporting conversion of opportunities into fundable proposals.
Ensure Acted’s positioning, particularly its focus on data‑driven programming (IMPACT) and climate resilience is consistently reflected in donor-facing materials and external communication.
2.2 Pipeline Development, Donor Diversification & Fundraising
Define and actively manage a focused portfolio of 5–7 priority donors, ensuring depth of engagement and alignment with mission funding priorities agreed with the DCD.
Prioritise and lead the development of non-traditional funding streams, with a strong focus on climate/environmental finance (e.g. GCF, adaptation/DRR funding) and private sector partnerships (banks, national companies, impact investors), positioning Acted where future funding growth is expected.
Identify and pursue funding opportunities across these non-traditional channels, adapting approaches (longer engagement cycles, partnership models, co-financing) to reflect their specific requirements and timelines.
Translate positioning efforts and external engagement into a structured, prioritised funding pipeline, ensuring opportunities are realistic, sequenced, and aligned with Acted’s comparative advantage in climate resilience and data-driven programming.
Maintain and regularly update the Donor Follow-Up (DFU) tracker as the central pipeline management tool, ensuring all opportunities include clear status, next steps, ownership, and deadlines.
Prepare and support donor and partner engagement strategies, including concept framing, briefing notes, and structured follow-up, tailored to both traditional and non-traditional donors to move opportunities toward formal submission.
Ensure all pipeline opportunities are actively progressed and do not stall, with particular attention to maintaining momentum in longer-cycle funding streams such as climate finance and private sector partnerships.
Under the supervision of the DCD, actively contribute to driving fundraising efforts and increasing the mission’s income, ensuring pipeline development is directly linked to measurable funding outcomes and reduced dependency on single-donor funding.
2.3 End-to-End Proposal Delivery
Lead the end‑to‑end proposal development process, including defining timelines, assigning responsibilities, drafting and consolidating inputs, conducting compliance checks, and preparing final submission packages in line with donor requirements.
Ensure all proposals are strategically positioned and aligned with donor expectations, integrating clear narratives, evidence (including IMPACT data), and lessons learned to maximise competitiveness.
Enforce contributions from Programme, MEAL, Finance, and Logistics teams, ensuring inputs are timely, coherent, and aligned, and escalate delays or quality issues to the DCD when required.
Ensure strong coherence between narrative and budget, working closely with Finance to align technical design, costing, and operational feasibility, particularly for complex climate and private sector opportunities.
Adapt proposal approaches and formats to meet the specific requirements of non‑traditional donors (private sector, foundations, climate finance), including flexibility in partnership models, co‑financing structures, and longer development timelines.
Maintain high standards of quality, clarity, and donor compliance, ensuring all submissions are complete, accurate, and submitted within internal and external deadlines.
Manage proposal submissions across relevant donor and UN platforms, ensuring Acted’s profiles, documentation, and submission requirements are up to date and fully compliant.
2.4 Grant Management, Compliance & Contracting
Ensure all grant obligations are clearly tracked and communicated across departments, maintaining full visibility on reporting timelines, deliverables, and donor requirements.
Support and coordinate project kick-off and close-out meetings, ensuring all teams understand their responsibilities, timelines, and key donor expectations from the outset.
Coordinate and review donor narrative reports, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and full alignment with financial reports in coordination with Finance.
Maintain and regularly update the Reporting Follow-Up (RFU) tracker, actively enforcing deadlines and escalating any delays or risks to the DCD to ensure zero missed donor reports caused by internal bottlenecks.
Conduct regular follow‑up with Programme teams to ensure implementation remains aligned with donor commitments, budgets, and timelines.
Identify risks to project delivery, compliance, or budgets early, and coordinate the preparation of mitigation actions, amendments, or no‑cost extensions in coordination with the DCD and HQ.
Prepare key negotiation points and flag risks ahead of donor contracting, supporting the CD/DCD in protecting Acted’s contractual and operational position.
Review donor contracts prior to signature and produce clear internal summaries outlining obligations, reporting requirements, visibility conditions, and high-risk clauses.
2.5 Internal Coordination, Partnerships & Evidence Integration
Coordinate the proposal and grant management process across Programme, MEAL, Finance, Logistics, and IMPACT teams, ensuring timely, coherent, and aligned inputs and escalating delays to the DCD where necessary.
Support and reinforce structured workflows and timelines for proposals and reporting, ensuring internal processes are predictable, efficient, and do not delay funding or compliance deliverables.
Work closely with Programme, MEAL, and IMPACT teams to ensure data, lessons learned, and evidence are systematically integrated into positioning, donor engagement, and proposal development.
Maintain and organise a centralised resource and knowledge base (assessments, data, donor intelligence, past proposals) to support fast and high-quality proposal development.
Support the identification and structuring of partnerships and consortia, ensuring roles, contributions, and expectations are clearly defined and aligned with funding opportunities.
Ensure internal alignment on Acted’s positioning and strategic priorities, supporting teams to understand and contribute to funding objectives (including climate, private sector, and data-driven programming).
Essential
A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated experience in
fundraising, business development, or donor engagement
, with a proven track record of
successfully securing funding or financing
.
Strong experience in
engaging and managing external stakeholders
, including direct interaction with
government officials (e.g. ministries such as Agriculture, Planning and Development), embassies, UN agencies, national NGOs/CSOs, and coordination platforms.
Strong existing
professional network in Ethiopia
, with the ability to open doors, navigate relationships, and maintain effective working-level engagement with key actors.
Excellent
writing and communication skills
, with the ability to produce clear, structured, and persuasive documents and to
adapt messaging to different audiences
(donors, government, private sector, partners).
Demonstrated ability to
both develop opportunities externally and deliver high-quality proposals
, including managing donor requirements, expectations, and follow-up processes.
Desirable
Strong understanding of
donor compliance, reporting requirements, and contractual obligations
, with the ability to ensure adherence across the full grant cycle.
Demonstrated ability to
coordinate and enforce deadlines across multiple departments
in a matrix structure, ensuring timely delivery of proposals and reports.
Strong understanding of the Ethiopian context, including
how government, donor, and coordination systems operate in practice.
Experience or strong interest in
non-traditional funding streams
, including private sector partnerships and/or climate/environmental finance.
Willingness and ability to
travel within Ethiopia
for donor engagement, assessments, and field visits as required.
How To Apply
Qualified applicants with the required skills are invited to submit their applications. The application should include a
one-page cover letter
and a
CV not exceeding two pages
, combined into a single document. Please ensure that the
cover letter appears on the first page
, followed by the
CV
, and that the CV includes details of
three work-related referees
.
Applications should be submitted via Ethio jobs and must be received on or
before 5:00 PM on July 12, 2026
. Please use the subject line:
“Fundraising & Positioning Manager" - Ethiopia
when submitting your application.
Please do not attach any other documents
while sending your applications, if required they will be requested at a later stage.
Please note that only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
ACTED will at no stage of recruitment process request candidate to make payments of any kind. Further, ACTED has not retained any agent in connection with recruitments.
ACTED is committed to protecting beneficiaries within our programmed from exploitation and abuse and any kind of misconduct. ACTED has specific policies, including PSEA and Child Protection, which outlines the expected behavior and the responsibility of all staff, beneficiaries, consultants and other stakeholders and has zero tolerance towards misconducts. Any candidate offered a job with ACTED will be expected to sign ACTED’s organizational Policies and Code of Conduct as an annex to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.
Skills (mandatory):
• Proven experience in working with CSOs, networks, or local initiatives and communities, Fundraising & donor engagement, Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Work experience:
3-5 years
Apply Now!
Fundraising & Positioning Manager
is responsible for generating funding for Acted Ethiopia by strengthening donor positioning, expanding external engagement, and ensuring disciplined, high-quality proposal delivery. The role combines external access, strategic positioning, and pipeline management to convert funding opportunities into successful projects.
The role is a proactive, externally driven function that positions Acted within the Ethiopian donor and partner ecosystem, leveraging relationships, evidence, and structured engagement with priority donors, government, and partners to increase funding opportunities and improve win rates. The role requires a high level of autonomy and ownership while working under the strategic direction of the DCD, with a clear focus on external engagement, donor positioning, and funding generation.
The role exists to:
Unlock funding
by proactively identifying, positioning, and converting opportunities into competitive proposals;
Strengthen Acted’s positioning and visibility
with priority donors, government, and partners;
Diversify the funding portfolio
, including institutional donors, climate finance, private sector actors, and foundations;
Leverage external relationships and local access
to build partnerships and consortium opportunities;
Ensure disciplined pipeline and proposal management
to improve conversion and reduce missed opportunities.
Success in this role is measured by:
The
quality and timeliness of submissions
;
The
strength and focus of the funding pipeline
(priority donors, active opportunities, clear next steps);
The level and impact of
donor and partner engagement
;
The
conversion of opportunities into secured funding
;
The development of
new and diversified funding streams
.
2. Key Responsibilities
2.1 Strategic Positioning, External Relations & Visibility
Build and maintain strong working relationships with priority donors, UN agencies, INGOs, government counterparts, and national NGOs, ensuring Acted has consistent access to decision‑makers and early visibility on funding opportunities.
Support the CD/DCD in strategic engagement with senior stakeholders by preparing briefings, key messages, and follow‑up actions, while leading the day‑to‑day management of relationships to ensure continuity, responsiveness, and progress on agreed actions.
Lead or coordinate Acted’s participation in clusters and coordination platforms, ensuring active contribution and systematic identification of funding opportunities, partnerships, and sector priorities.
Translate all external engagement (meetings, clusters, donor interactions) into concrete pipeline opportunities, with clear follow-up actions, ownership, and alignment with funding priorities.
Conduct ongoing analysis of donor trends, operational gaps, and emerging needs, and translate these into clear positioning messages and differentiated funding angles for validation with the DCD.
Coordinate and manage donor communications, engagements, and visits, ensuring all interactions are well-prepared, consistently messaged, and directly contribute to advancing funding opportunities.
Lead operational follow‑up on government engagement, including coordination of required documentation (such as Letters of Support), ensuring alignment with national priorities and supporting conversion of opportunities into fundable proposals.
Ensure Acted’s positioning, particularly its focus on data‑driven programming (IMPACT) and climate resilience is consistently reflected in donor-facing materials and external communication.
2.2 Pipeline Development, Donor Diversification & Fundraising
Define and actively manage a focused portfolio of 5–7 priority donors, ensuring depth of engagement and alignment with mission funding priorities agreed with the DCD.
Prioritise and lead the development of non-traditional funding streams, with a strong focus on climate/environmental finance (e.g. GCF, adaptation/DRR funding) and private sector partnerships (banks, national companies, impact investors), positioning Acted where future funding growth is expected.
Identify and pursue funding opportunities across these non-traditional channels, adapting approaches (longer engagement cycles, partnership models, co-financing) to reflect their specific requirements and timelines.
Translate positioning efforts and external engagement into a structured, prioritised funding pipeline, ensuring opportunities are realistic, sequenced, and aligned with Acted’s comparative advantage in climate resilience and data-driven programming.
Maintain and regularly update the Donor Follow-Up (DFU) tracker as the central pipeline management tool, ensuring all opportunities include clear status, next steps, ownership, and deadlines.
Prepare and support donor and partner engagement strategies, including concept framing, briefing notes, and structured follow-up, tailored to both traditional and non-traditional donors to move opportunities toward formal submission.
Ensure all pipeline opportunities are actively progressed and do not stall, with particular attention to maintaining momentum in longer-cycle funding streams such as climate finance and private sector partnerships.
Under the supervision of the DCD, actively contribute to driving fundraising efforts and increasing the mission’s income, ensuring pipeline development is directly linked to measurable funding outcomes and reduced dependency on single-donor funding.
2.3 End-to-End Proposal Delivery
Lead the end‑to‑end proposal development process, including defining timelines, assigning responsibilities, drafting and consolidating inputs, conducting compliance checks, and preparing final submission packages in line with donor requirements.
Ensure all proposals are strategically positioned and aligned with donor expectations, integrating clear narratives, evidence (including IMPACT data), and lessons learned to maximise competitiveness.
Enforce contributions from Programme, MEAL, Finance, and Logistics teams, ensuring inputs are timely, coherent, and aligned, and escalate delays or quality issues to the DCD when required.
Ensure strong coherence between narrative and budget, working closely with Finance to align technical design, costing, and operational feasibility, particularly for complex climate and private sector opportunities.
Adapt proposal approaches and formats to meet the specific requirements of non‑traditional donors (private sector, foundations, climate finance), including flexibility in partnership models, co‑financing structures, and longer development timelines.
Maintain high standards of quality, clarity, and donor compliance, ensuring all submissions are complete, accurate, and submitted within internal and external deadlines.
Manage proposal submissions across relevant donor and UN platforms, ensuring Acted’s profiles, documentation, and submission requirements are up to date and fully compliant.
2.4 Grant Management, Compliance & Contracting
Ensure all grant obligations are clearly tracked and communicated across departments, maintaining full visibility on reporting timelines, deliverables, and donor requirements.
Support and coordinate project kick-off and close-out meetings, ensuring all teams understand their responsibilities, timelines, and key donor expectations from the outset.
Coordinate and review donor narrative reports, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and full alignment with financial reports in coordination with Finance.
Maintain and regularly update the Reporting Follow-Up (RFU) tracker, actively enforcing deadlines and escalating any delays or risks to the DCD to ensure zero missed donor reports caused by internal bottlenecks.
Conduct regular follow‑up with Programme teams to ensure implementation remains aligned with donor commitments, budgets, and timelines.
Identify risks to project delivery, compliance, or budgets early, and coordinate the preparation of mitigation actions, amendments, or no‑cost extensions in coordination with the DCD and HQ.
Prepare key negotiation points and flag risks ahead of donor contracting, supporting the CD/DCD in protecting Acted’s contractual and operational position.
Review donor contracts prior to signature and produce clear internal summaries outlining obligations, reporting requirements, visibility conditions, and high-risk clauses.
2.5 Internal Coordination, Partnerships & Evidence Integration
Coordinate the proposal and grant management process across Programme, MEAL, Finance, Logistics, and IMPACT teams, ensuring timely, coherent, and aligned inputs and escalating delays to the DCD where necessary.
Support and reinforce structured workflows and timelines for proposals and reporting, ensuring internal processes are predictable, efficient, and do not delay funding or compliance deliverables.
Work closely with Programme, MEAL, and IMPACT teams to ensure data, lessons learned, and evidence are systematically integrated into positioning, donor engagement, and proposal development.
Maintain and organise a centralised resource and knowledge base (assessments, data, donor intelligence, past proposals) to support fast and high-quality proposal development.
Support the identification and structuring of partnerships and consortia, ensuring roles, contributions, and expectations are clearly defined and aligned with funding opportunities.
Ensure internal alignment on Acted’s positioning and strategic priorities, supporting teams to understand and contribute to funding objectives (including climate, private sector, and data-driven programming).
Essential
A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated experience in
fundraising, business development, or donor engagement
, with a proven track record of
successfully securing funding or financing
.
Strong experience in
engaging and managing external stakeholders
, including direct interaction with
government officials (e.g. ministries such as Agriculture, Planning and Development), embassies, UN agencies, national NGOs/CSOs, and coordination platforms.
Strong existing
professional network in Ethiopia
, with the ability to open doors, navigate relationships, and maintain effective working-level engagement with key actors.
Excellent
writing and communication skills
, with the ability to produce clear, structured, and persuasive documents and to
adapt messaging to different audiences
(donors, government, private sector, partners).
Demonstrated ability to
both develop opportunities externally and deliver high-quality proposals
, including managing donor requirements, expectations, and follow-up processes.
Desirable
Strong understanding of
donor compliance, reporting requirements, and contractual obligations
, with the ability to ensure adherence across the full grant cycle.
Demonstrated ability to
coordinate and enforce deadlines across multiple departments
in a matrix structure, ensuring timely delivery of proposals and reports.
Strong understanding of the Ethiopian context, including
how government, donor, and coordination systems operate in practice.
Experience or strong interest in
non-traditional funding streams
, including private sector partnerships and/or climate/environmental finance.
Willingness and ability to
travel within Ethiopia
for donor engagement, assessments, and field visits as required.
How To Apply
Qualified applicants with the required skills are invited to submit their applications. The application should include a
one-page cover letter
and a
CV not exceeding two pages
, combined into a single document. Please ensure that the
cover letter appears on the first page
, followed by the
CV
, and that the CV includes details of
three work-related referees
.
Applications should be submitted via Ethio jobs and must be received on or
before 5:00 PM on July 12, 2026
. Please use the subject line:
“Fundraising & Positioning Manager" - Ethiopia
when submitting your application.
Please do not attach any other documents
while sending your applications, if required they will be requested at a later stage.
Please note that only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
ACTED will at no stage of recruitment process request candidate to make payments of any kind. Further, ACTED has not retained any agent in connection with recruitments.
ACTED is committed to protecting beneficiaries within our programmed from exploitation and abuse and any kind of misconduct. ACTED has specific policies, including PSEA and Child Protection, which outlines the expected behavior and the responsibility of all staff, beneficiaries, consultants and other stakeholders and has zero tolerance towards misconducts. Any candidate offered a job with ACTED will be expected to sign ACTED’s organizational Policies and Code of Conduct as an annex to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents.
Skills (mandatory):
• Proven experience in working with CSOs, networks, or local initiatives and communities, Fundraising & donor engagement, Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Work experience:
3-5 years
Apply Now!