Partnerships Manager (Africa Program Fundraising)

Namati is dedicated to placing the power of law in the hands of people. For billions of people around the world, the law is broken. It’s an abstraction — or worse, a threat — but not something we can use to exercise our basic rights. Namati is building a global movement of community legal workers–also known as barefoot lawye…

Partnerships Manager (Africa Program Fundraising)

About the Position

• Namati is entering a critical new phase. As we deepen our impact across the globe, we seek a strategic and relationship-driven Partnerships Manager to secure funding for Namati’s work in Africa.

• As Namati’s fundraising strategy evolves, we’re shifting much of our global Resource Mobilization (RM) team to prioritize multi-program and thematic awards spanning several countries or global initiatives. To complement this global team, we’re looking for a Manager to focus squarely on single-program awards for our programs in Kenya and Sierra Leone. That means cultivating funders whose interests are rooted in a specific country or a program, such as embassies, local offices of development agencies, and foundations funding in-country civil society initiatives.

• The Manager will drive the full lifecycle of program-specific fundraising, from prospect identification and cultivation to securing awards to stewarding relationships for longevity and growth. This role will report to the Senior Advisor for the time being.

• This is a unique opportunity for a skilled fundraiser to embed in the work of locally-rooted country teams, working side-by-side to resource their essential work during a time of global instability, while benefiting from close collaboration with a professional, global fundraising team.

Key Responsibilities include

Pipeline development & strategy

• Build and maintain a robust pipeline of funding opportunities for Namati’s programs in Africa, with particular attention to embassies, local foundations, global foundations with country-specific grantmaking strategy, and in-country offices of bilateral and multilateral agencies.

• Track donor trends and identify opportunities that align closely with near-term program priorities as well as supporting longer-term country strategies.

• Collaborate with U.S.-based colleagues to ensure program-specific fundraising complements and aligns with broader thematic and multi-country strategies.

Proposal development & reporting

• Lead the drafting, coordination, and submission of concept notes, proposals and reports for program-specific opportunities in tight collaboration with program and finance teams.

• Ensure compliance with donor requirements and internal processes, meeting all commitments to funders on time and at the highest quality.

Donor cultivation & stewardship

• Develop strong relationships across diverse stakeholders ranging from embassy staff to local donor representatives to foundation program officers, positioning Namati as a trusted partner.

• Represent Namati at external meetings, events, and donor convenings in Nairobi and (occasionally) Freetown or elsewhere, including regional or continental convenings such as the Africa Philanthropy Forum.

• Cultivate opportunities to build multi-country relationships with donor agencies whose embassies fund across more than one Namati country.

Internal collaboration

• Work hand in hand with our Sierra Leone and Kenya program leads to understand their strategies, priorities, and funding needs, and to provide funding outlook insights to inform country strategy.

• Support program teams to deeply understand donor goals and perspectives while ensuring that our fundraising efforts focus on aligning funders to our mission and values, rather than bending our programs to match funder priorities.

• Provide the RM team and global leadership with regular analysis of local trends, opportunities, and risks in African philanthropy and bilateral giving, highlighting emerging themes that could affect both program-specific and thematic fundraising.

Fundraising systems & learning

• Collaborate with fundraising operations team members to ensure timely entry of all proposals, opportunities, and donor interactions into Namati’s fundraising management systems (HubSpot, Asana, Google Drive).

• Monitor key pipeline and renewal metrics, ensuring that day-to-day fundraising efforts lead to measurable progress toward strategic fundraising goals.