Chief Development and Impact Officer

The Elton John AIDS Foundation is one of the foremost independent AIDS charities in the world. Their mission is to help end the global AIDS epidemic by reducing new HIV infections; preventing people becoming sick or dying of AIDS and fighting the stigma that surrounds the disease and enables it to spread. They do this by supporting front line services in 23 countries, driven by local and national organisations who use their funds to achieve the most change from their work. Underpinning this work, they are expanding their advocacy and convening role, to leverage greater support for their goals and to protect their gains with policies that can benefit those most in need. In this way they have disbursed over $326m in grants since our inception in 1993 and generated more than £250m in matched funding.

Over the last few years, they have seen a tremendous change in the global landscape of the AIDS epidemic. Worldwide, infection rates have dropped along with deaths from AIDS. Whilst this is wonderful, not all people are benefiting from this progress, and the burden of HIV infection varies widely across the globe.

Following a strategic review, they now seek to appoint a Chief Development and Impact Officer, who can build on their existing strengths, working collaboratively with the CEO, their Senior Management Team and their Board to achieve their ambitious objectives and support EJAF through a period of sustained growth and impact.

They are looking for an individual that shares their passion for the important work and who possesses their critical characteristic, an entrepreneurial spirit. Someone with the ability to identify and exploit opportunities to get the best possible outcomes for the Foundation. In return you will be guaranteed an exciting, challenging and rewarding experience within a progressive and forward-thinking organisation.

The Role

The Chief Development & Impact Officer (CDIO) is a senior leadership position, reporting to the CEO, responsible for leading and developing the Foundation’s strategic role and impact through its grant making, community engagement, advocacy and partnership efforts – its ‘programme work’. The CDIO will ensure the Foundation’s programmatic impact is achieved according to the Foundation’s mission, vision and strategic objectives. He/she/they will lead development, iteration, and evaluation of the Foundation’s strategic direction and implementation across teams. They will ensure the Foundation uses its programmatic resources, grant making, expertise and income to maximise its impact on the stigma, discrimination and neglect that keeps us from ending the AIDS epidemic.

The CDIO will develop programmes, partnerships and networks building the Foundation’s influence and supporting its fundraising and communications efforts in order to meet its strategic vision and goals; he/she/they leads a highly effective and dynamic multidisciplinary team internally, driving strong internal and external relationships at government, multilateral and organizational levels and providing high quality advice and guidance that supports the effective formulation of Foundation-wide strategies, policy and decision making.

The CDIO will also oversee the Elton John Aids Foundation’s Global Grants Management and lead the grants management team, including grant portfolio managers, monitoring and evaluation manager, grants admin and finance, and external consultants where applicable.

He/she/they ensures that the Foundation uses its grants management expertise and income in a way that maximizes its impact towards overcoming the stigma, discrimination and neglect that keeps us from ending the AIDS epidemic. This includes oversight of the grants function including budget, grant management systems and analysis of different programmatic approaches in funded grants; their value, leverage and overall impact.

The Chief Development and Impact Officer will assume primary responsibility for developing, delivering, and assessing the Foundation’s learning, measurement, and knowledge management systems across all its programmatic activities. Working with the Monitoring & Evaluation Manager, the CDIO will ensure distillation of key learnings and insights from EJAF funded work, ensuring they are shared within the Foundation and amongst its grantees.

 Key Responsibilities and Deliverables

Strategic Planning

• Leading and taking collective accountability for the development, implementation and review of the foundation’s programmatic strategy and priorities, ensuring they are fully aligned with fundraising and communications objectives and that they reflect the ambition and approach set out in the Institutional Strategy approved by the Board.
• Mapping and analysis of the external environment, to determine where and how the Foundation’s efforts, (and associated brand recognition and convening power) can be best utilised to fulfil our mission and unlock larger resources or influence for the AIDS fight.
• Developing the Foundation’s strategic, long-term value-add within the global HIV philanthropic and government ecosystem as well as working with the Chief Executive and Chief Philanthropy Officer to identify strategic partnership opportunities across the commercial sector that can facilitate or amplify our efforts.
• Embedding a culture of evaluation and learning that can be shared internally and externally; can quantify and qualify EJAF’s contribution to the AIDS fight and enables iterative refinement of function to deliver greater impact.
• Embed a culture of return on investment, impact and value for money across all programmatic efforts, including funded grants, provide relevant technical, geographic and political advice to the Board, CEO and management staff where required and identify opportunities/threats to EJAF’s operations that will shape the development and implementation of investments, communications and our brand.

 Partnership Building

• Working with the Chief Philanthropy Officer, identify and develop high value, multi- year alliances with philanthropic, government and commercial partners that support the Foundation’s strategic plan and mission and cement our role as a catalytic funder. Initiate and manage these partnerships where required.
• Identify, cultivate and execute strategic partnership opportunities that increase visibility on HIV/AIDS, promote policies, enhance political will and facilitate the acquisition of new resources in support of achieving our goals.

 Development

• Establish annual and multi-year targets for EJAF’s programmes and grants pipeline that will enable it to meet the goals of the strategy.
• Put in place the resources, processes and procedures necessary to enable the timely development and delivery of robust, high quality and high impact programmes (including funded grants) that are fully aligned to strategic operational strategies
• Develop and maintain excellent external relationships (both within and beyond sector specialism), acting at all times as a corporate ambassador for the Foundation, to help build the organisation’s reputation and profile as a professional and collaborative organization.
• Identify/review resource needs related to our programmatic activities on an ongoing basis.

 Management

• Provide compelling, consistent and united leadership which creates clarity for programmes staff and builds a culture of shared accountability for, and commitment to the successful delivery of the Foundation’s mission.
• Develop clear objectives and workplans with Grants team and M&E manager, (in line with strategic objectives) and manage their performance.
• Working closely with Comms Director and Chief Philanthropy Officer, identify and cultivate opportunities for future grants partnerships and development and deploy programmes team resources appropriately.
• Work within agreed budgets.
• Develop relationships with institutional and commercial funders whose resources,
• expertise, access or products can advance our programmatic aims and objectives.
• In conjunction with IT Manager and colleagues in the Finance Team, ensure timely production of high quality, accurate and meaningful financial and management
• information to support effective and evidence-based decision making and planning.

Impact Reporting

• Use impact data to demonstrate the Foundation’s contribution to long-term solutions and to highlight the value of advocacy, convening events and partnerships.

General

• Interact at national and international level with appropriate stakeholders including beneficiary groups, NGOs, government departments donors and partners, , positioning EJAF as a critical stakeholder in the HIV/AIDS development sector.
• Represent EJAF at national and international fora, and fundraising events where appropriate.
• Provide courteous, timely communication with potential and current partners.
• Represent EJAF in the field and engage with implementation and evaluation partners in a pragmatic and supportive way.

Reporting Structure

• This role reports to Chief Executive Officer.
• Works extensively as part of the Senior Leadership Team. Works with external
• partners, and Programmes team colleagues
• Provides advice and guidance to the board where appropriate.
• This role leads the Programmes team

 Knowledge, skills and Experience

• Advanced level university degree (Masters, Doctoral, Juris Doctorate, Medical) or equivalent by experience within a relevant specialism
• Min 10 years directly related professional experience managing or implementing complex, multi stakeholder programmes- including management of processes, budgets and metrics, analysis and due diligence; planning and programme delivery, including field experience, ideally within the development sector.
• Significant experience identifying and developing strategic partnerships, working closely with partners to develop strategy and achieve goals, including with private sector partners, governments, bilateral and/or multilateral donors and NGOs.
• Significant experience as a team leader, manager, decision maker and negotiator preferably at an international level and in public health/development and operational partnerships
• Ability to gather relevant input, analyse complex data, think critically and identify best practices to inform programmatic design
• Detailed understanding of decision-making processes
• Excellent people leadership skills and proven ability to motivate, develop and hold to
• account teams of professionals
• Highly developed communication and influencing skills
• Proven track record of building and maintaining strategic relationships and working in
• partnership
• Excellent financial acumen and proven ability to manage budgets and resources tightly
• and prudently
• Excellent influencing and negotiation skills, including an ability to deal with people at
• all levels with credibility, tact, and diplomacy.

Desirable but not essential

• Detailed knowledge and understanding of programme development and delivery within the international development sector
• Evidence of successful development and implementation of strategic plans within an international NGO, business or public sector context
• A strong blend of private sector management and international development experience, in a fast-paced environment, having worked with leading organisations in the sector
• Proven ability to build networks with diverse partners in pursuit of common goals
• Experience of performance managing grant commitments, achieving anticipated
• results
• Experience of end-to-end program design and management, including building
• complex, rigorous strategies
• Entrepreneurial outlook and ability to develop new initiatives and approaches
• Experience of developing and winning multi-million-dollar technical proposals for
• institutional `funders
• Experience of a complex organisational structure, preferably in a global context
• Proven track record of policy influencing at national or international level

How to apply

To apply for this role, kindly send through a Microsoft Word version of your CV and a cover letter detailing why you are suited to this role. Please mark it for the attention of Gareth Griffiths, email address: [email protected].  Please subject your email with the following reference: EJAF_CDIO.

Please note that the interview dates for this role will be confirmed with you should your application be successful.

Red Sea is committed to meeting the standards set out in their Equality and Diversity recruitment policy; this includes not discriminating under the Equality Act 2010 and building an accurate picture of the make-up of the workforce in encouraging equality and diversity.