Job Title: Resource Acquisition and Strategic Partnerships Manager
Organisation: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
About Organisation:
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the largest independent conservation organizations in the world. We are an international NGO committed to environmental protection active in almost 100 countries. WWF has a growing conservation Programme in the Republic of Uganda. WWF Uganda Country Office (WWF UCO) works with central and local government agencies, private sector, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the local communities to implement its various conservation programmes on Energy and Climate, Forestry and Wildlife, and Freshwater in Uganda.
Job Summary: We are looking for a dynamic, enthusiastic and highly qualified person to fill the position of Resource Acquisition and Strategic Partnerships Manager.
The Resource Acquisition and Strategic Patronship’s Manager will oversee grant acquisition for the country office, leading teams of professionals to design and implement fundraising strategies. He/she will support the building of strategic partnerships, networking and donor engagement and grants compliance. They will lead the development and maintenance of knowledge management capabilities to engage and improve the country office attractiveness for grant acquisitions and grants management.
The Resource Acquisition and Strategic Partnerships Manager at WWF-Uganda has a multifaceted role:
- Resource Mobilization: They oversee the organization’s resource acquisition efforts, including creating and implementing a 3-5-year strategy to financially support and strategically advance environmental conservation activities in Uganda.
- Strategic Partnerships: They work to build capacity and create an enabling environment for WWF-Uganda to develop strategic partnerships which play a crucial role in advancing the delivery of conservation priorities.
- Donor Agreement Management: The manager ensures effective management of donor agreements, ensuring quality and timely compliance with their implementation.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
In this regard, the Resource Acquisition and Strategic Partnerships Manager will:
- Develop, implement, monitor and keep up to date the WWF-Uganda fundraising strategy and annual work plans to advance WWF’s conservation objectives and increase income, regularly reporting on progress.
- Effectively lead UCO’s proposal development process in conjunction with the Conservation Head and other relevant staff from capture to negotiation according to the WWF-Uganda proposal development process.
- Conduct an environmental scan / frequent donor and potential funding mapping and provide donor intelligence (thematic orientations, modalities of engagement, entry points and forecasts).
- Ensure concepts and proposals meet all the requirements of donors and align with the UCO strategy and conservation priorities, including a pipeline tracking system.
- Work closely with the Finance team to ensure an effective budgeting process for proposal development, seeking active collaboration between members of the CO team, ROA team, external consultants, as well as other experts on development of robust and quality proposals.
- Report proactively on the status of the pipeline and fundraising processes to WWF-Uganda CD, proactively sharing information on opportunities and fundraising challenges within the CO, but also with the ROA team with a view to strengthen collaboration and align actions.
- Ensure lessons from the project development process are captured and applied to improve future proposals, promote information sharing and learning.
- Lead fundraising coordination with WWF-International and WWF ROA along with leads from WWF- to advance fundraising objectives.
- Responsible for identifying, researching, developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with public sector, Private sector and individual donors in close consultation and coordination with the WWF-Uganda Conservation Head and WWF fundraising teams across the network, placing focus on opportunities from the Africa Region.
- Identify, scope and position WWF-Uganda as a partner of choice for new funding modalities such as direct awards, trust funds, tenders and complex consortia partnerships in line with WWF’s gatekeeping policies.
- Supervise and coordinate the maintenance and upgrading of the fundraising database (C2G) to support strategy and decision-making by senior management.
- Identify and oversee management of major reputational risks for WWF related to execution of grant contracts.
- In coordination with the Country Director and program technical teams, draft capacity statements, past performance references, management plans and other relevant elements of the proposals.
- Ensure that all project proposal processes are in line with the existing ESSF guidelines and standards.
- Lead the development and maintenance of effective relationships with current and prospective donors.
- Support the UCO with networking and liaising with key in-country and international donors.
- Identify key strategic partnerships for the UCO and WWF, including civil society organizations, INGOs, UN and government entities, and develop and support strategies to cultivate partnerships on priority programmes and initiatives.
- Actively engage in and support UCO’s communication work; ensure business development collateral (a portfolio of quality programme and project proposals, research and evidence of impacts of WWF-Uganda work) are up to date and ready for sharing with potential donors.
- Scope and develop partnerships with other organizations working in the international development, climate resilience and environment/ Natural resources sector and provide effective coordination for the establishment of proposal development working groups with representatives from key stakeholders within and outside UCO (consortium formation).
- Act as focal point for WWF-Uganda in Network communities of practice on fundraising, public sector partnerships and corporate engagement as relevant.
- Lead effort to integrate national-level fundraising strategy with the landscape conservation approach and design landscape-specific fundraising action plans.
- Create opportunities for WWF-Uganda senior staff to engage regularly with different donors in order to position WWF-Uganda as a leading implementation partner.
- Contribute to the advocacy process and support WWF-Uganda to influence and conceptualise programmatic priorities at the country and regional level.
- Build trust and long-term partnerships with key donors and investors, ensuring that potential risks in project implementation are communicated to donors timely and adequately and that potential reputational issues are being addressed as quickly and effectively as possible.
- Monitor overall donor and strategic partners outreach activities to ensure that relationships, content development, follow-up and reporting are being managed appropriately.
- Work with program, communications, and fundraising staff from across the WWF network to develop a range of fundraising, communications and marketing materials to support WWF-Uganda’s conservation activities.
- Actively participate in relevant donor meetings and networking events to further develop funding relationships.
- Participate and contribute to relevant funding platforms to broaden perspective on industry trends, keep up to date on changes to funding and application processes and jointly influence donor funding architecture.
- Facilitate signing of agreements with donors and MOUs with local partners.
- Monitor the adherence and compliance of grants and projects to the terms and donor’s requirements, including evaluations, branding requirements, project close-outs, assets handover, etc.
- Coordinate regular program and financial reporting, overseeing compliance with contractual requirements.
- Lead the quality assurance and effective management of donor agreements with WWF UCO and overall quality assurance of project and programme development.
- Strengthen the UCOs’ institutional capacity to acquire relevant grants.
- Provide adequate training to field staff on proposal development and grants management skills (including proposal-writing and report-writing).
- Build staff and partner organization capabilities for successful grant acquisition and management.
- Lead the management of the knowledge database to ensure information is shared among technical team, field program and other concerned staff, to capture new opportunities and track the ongoing grants.
- Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- Minimum Master’s degree in Business management, Law, Marketing, International Relations, Business communication, Development Studies or related fields.
- At least 10 years of proven experience in business development, sales, financial resource mobilization, key account management, of which at least 5 have been in designing, developing and fundraising for transformational projects with INGOs/NGOs/ Not-for-profits/ and/or in a leadership role preferably within an International Development organizations or complex matrix environment.
- Experience in developing and writing project proposals to a broad portfolio of philanthropic actors, including but not limited to public sector, foundations, and corporate sponsors.
- Excellent oral and written communications skills in English.
- Charming personality, versatile, with great positive energy.
- Knowledge and experience of the realities of conservation & development issues, donor strategies, funding instruments and contract administration.
- Successful track record of cultivating funding partnerships across sectors.
- Experience of coordinating and negotiating with Government and donors at all levels.
- Excellent understanding of development partnerships, fund-raising, donor strategies, functions and international relations.
- Proven financial analysis skills which include, but are not limited to, preparing and reading financial dashboards, scenario planning, financial investment decision-making, and business case development.
- Good understanding of conservation, development and political interests in the countries of WWF-ROA.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships, negotiate/mediate on issues, chair, resolve conflicts, and develop capacity.
- Self-starter with the ability to work quickly and efficiently to meet tight deadlines in and out of office hours.
- Strong cross-cultural skills and versatility in dealing with different types of partnerships.
- Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and commitment to the mission of WWF Uganda.
- Demonstrates WWF’s behaviors which are Strive for Impact, listen deeply, collaborate openly and Innovate fearlessly in their way of working.
- Adherence to WWF’s values, which are: Courage, Integrity, Respect and Collaboration.
How to Apply:
Email an application cover letter, Curriculum Vitae and contact details of three (3) referees plus copies of academic qualifications (sent as one PDF document) clearly indicating “the job title” in the subject line to: [email protected]
Deadline: 20th October 2025
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Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: 120