Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Department

The Development team drives and supports Mercy Corps’ strategies for restricted funding, unrestricted funds and brand profile raising. As a part of this team, the Corporate and Foundations Team (CFT) cultivates and maintains strategic relationships with private donors, working closely with programme colleagues around the world to develop partnerships that support social impact at scale in our priority areas including economic and market development, food and water security, climate change, peacebuilding and emergency response, creating lasting impact with and for the local communities with whom we work.

The Position

The Corporate and Foundation Partnerships Officer is a cross-cutting function supporting both Corporate and Foundation Team (CFT) workstreams, encompassing two key areas: partnership management and operations support to ensure smooth and efficient operations; and partner and prospect research to inform donor strategies. The position plays a key coordination role to support the CFT in all their activities. The role includes prospect research, due diligence, partner stewardship, communications, coordinating grants and agreements, tracking KPIs, supporting emergency appeals and coordinating cross-team initiatives. The ideal candidate will be organized, diligent and an excellent communicator with attention to detail.

Essential Responsibilities

Prospecting & Research

• Support the development of the prospect pipeline with regular prospect mapping, research and qualification.
• Develop and coordinate Due Diligence reports in accordance with approved Mercy Corps’ partner ethics policy and Due Diligence process (in conjunction with the CFT Research Manager based in the US where appropriate).
• Coordinate and keep updated team work plan and projection documents.
• Support in managing prospect engagement trackers.
• Tracking key events and relevant application deadlines for proposals, networking and profile-raising opportunities to inform donor strategies.
• Support the development of fact sheets, pitch decks, impact reports, background briefs and meeting talking points, collaborating with relevant team members in communications and programmatic teams.
• Attend external webinars to gather information on donors and state of the sector to further inform research.

Grant Compliance

• Support CFT Senior Officers with coordinating contracting and agreement processes where required.
• Update the CFT pledge tracker and coordinate with Development Operations (DevOps) to process funds as they are received; flag pledge schedules, payments, monthly reports and adjustments.
• Ensure Raisers’ Edge is up to date and records are accurate and accessible on the appropriate internal and global drives.

Profile Raising

• Maintain a communications and events planner for CFT in Europe, inputting into global trackers where relevant.
• Coordinate profile raising opportunities in collaboration with the global CFT Communications team.
• Support the development of messaging and materials for CFT audiences.

Coordination

• Attend cross-team meetings on behalf of CFT and feedback on agency updates.
• Support the team to enhance and/or devise appropriate and efficient processes and procedures to improve internal coordination.
• Coordinate cross team initiatives as required e.g. related to emergency response appeals or global campaign initiatives requiring CFT input.

Supervisory Responsibility : None

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Strategic Partnerships Manager

Works Directly With: The Development team, operations and Partnerships teams

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualifications & Transferable Skills

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in a fundraising/development support role
• Experience in a cross-cutting role within a team.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience working within a research and coordination-heavy role
• Outstanding writing and analytical skills; ability to craft accurate, succinct and condensed research analysis and present this information in a clear and actionable way.
• Ability to multitask, balancing urgent priorities with longer-term projects.
• Experience working in the international development/humanitarian sector preferred.
• Experience and/or familiarity with international development issues preferred.
• Excellent verbal communication skills, able to present the organisation and discuss opportunities for collaboration with a diverse range of actors.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• IT literate with good knowledge of Microsoft Office and databases and the ability to manage complex spreadsheets/trackers.
• Experience of using/managing relationship databases, ideally Raiser’s Edge

Success Factors
The successful candidate demonstrates strong and collaborative team worker. Excellent communicator, able to build and maintain effective internal and external relationships. Excellent organisational and time management skills, able to work quickly, accurately and to deadlines. Excellent attention to detail and highly diligent. S/he is a creative thinker, able to find interesting angles to engage our partners. Analytical mindset with the ability to draw relevant information from numerous sources and present in a digestible format. Professional, highly motivated and solutions-oriented and able to cope with changing priorities, often at short notice, and work well under pressure.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in London or Edinburgh and may involve occasional national and international travel. Mercy Corps Europe team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a short term assignment or trip to country offices. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps’ policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all Mercy Corps locations. Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment. Candidates must have the right to work in the UK at the time of appointment.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.