The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a non-governmental humanitarian organization, founded in 1956 to support refugees and migrants in Denmark. With a growing global mandate, it has developed into one of the world’s leading global humanitarian organizations working on displacement.

We are constantly evolving and developing cutting edge programs ranging from humanitarian mine action and disarmament, approaches to ensure that our programs benefit the hard to reach, involve and mobilize the diaspora into the humanitarian ecosystem, and dive deep into research on displacement through the mixed migration center we are hosting.

Given the rapidly mounting number of people requiring assistance in the last few years, DRC constantly looks for ways to strengthen the efficiency and appropriateness of the humanitarian ecosystem and to develop jointly new approaches to prevent people from requiring assistance such as anticipatory action, peace building, stabilization and long-term development.

To fundraise, influence, research and communicate, DRC has offices in the global North in Copenhagen, Brussels, Geneva and recently opened in Berlin, Germany. DRC has also decided to open a presence in Washington DC . Last year, we worked in 41 countries and had 8,000 staff members worldwide.

About the job

As Senior Partnership Advisor covering the German institutional donors you will be a core member of the DRC office in Berlin, Germany working closely with and reporting to the Country Representative. DRC has officially established its presence in November 2023 and there is a great potential for increased engagement with the German actors. We are looking for someone that is eager to contribute to the development of DRC’s presence and team in Germany.

At the same time, you will have a technical matrix management line into the Institutional Donors (ID) team based in HQ Copenhagen and work closely with your counterparts in Geneva, Brussels and the nascent Washington presence. Your overall responsibility will be to support DRC’s capacity strengthening to maintain and improve donor relationships and fundraising efforts.

The Senior Partnership Advisor oversees the engagement and fundraising efforts focusing primarily on institutional donors with an initial focus on the GFFO (AA) and BMZ. In this role, you are responsible for supporting the strategic planning and leading donor-specific engagement plans in collaboration with colleagues and key internal stakeholders, namely Regional Business Development Coordinators and Regional Head of Programs, HQ Finance, HQ Operations, Code of Conduct, MEAL, Advocacy, and Programme Units.

You are tasked with undertaking analyses, elaborating donor intelligence to inform and advise senior management and colleagues about the partnership development and fundraising opportunities. You will be accountable for sharing relevant information and developing tools on strategic compliance.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Partnership Engagement

Support the DRC representative in creating strong and strategic partnerships between DRC and German donors at capital level, with an initial focus on GFFO.
Engage proactively with the ID to address challenges and opportunities related to DRC’s partnership with the ID at global level, and inform and advise Regional Offices (ROs)/Country Offices (COs) accordingly.
Develop clear protocols for sharing information, communicating, and engaging with the ID in strategic policy issues across the organization.
Prepare, document and overview high-level engagement between DRC and ID, in particular senior management meetings or ID-specific events.
Provide support and expertise to DRC country and regional operations on ID partnership.
Represent DRC in dialogues with core donors on regulatory frameworks.
Actively participate in coordination mechanisms with peer organisations or other networks and platforms and build good collaboration with these actors.

Donor intelligence and knowledge management

Monitor and analyze relevant ID trends and donor intelligence and provide strategic advice on possible impact and ways to adapt across all levels of the organization.
Provide information and advice on donor priorities and interests to inform leadership and colleagues on strategic and programmatic opportunities for resource mobilization.
Develop qualitative and quantitative surveys and analyses to feed into donor trends and global donor analyses, lessons learned and other dissemination documents.
Coordinate and compile information requested by donors from DRC’s global operations.
Maintain relevant donor portfolio overview.

Strategic Compliance

Proactively monitor and notify management on global-level concerns and risks related to donor compliance and support decision making process.
Disseminate internally key strategic compliance topics as necessary.
Develop tools, platforms, and internal workflows for efficient strategic donor compliance (this includes the gradual development and the maintaining of DRC Insite (DRC’s intranet) donor pages covering German institutional donors, updating and publishing internal guidance tools such as Donorpedias, fact sheets etc.).
Provide strategic donor compliance training of country offices and regional staff – live trainings and e-learning through donor compliance webinars.
Work closely together and strengthen capacities of Grants Management Unit staff on donor policies and guidelines.
Lead and coordinate donor organizational capacity assessments and due diligence processes

Strategy

Support design and advancement of the global donor engagement strategy based on the ID donor trends and priorities.
Lead the development of donor-specific engagement action plans for the ID and steer implementation.
Contribute to income growth by supporting COs/ROs in meeting and exceeding institutional donor funding targets.
Lead and/or coordinate the DRC steering group for the ID.

Others

Coordinate and guide processes for global calls and from donors as relevant.
Support DRC delegations coming to Berlin/Germany - coordinating with visitors/Advocacy, scheduling the meetings, briefing notes, prep meetings with the teams, joining the meetings.

About you

The Senior Partnership Advisors are essential to DRC’s efforts in managing partnerships with existing institutional donors, as well as ensuring that DRC stays ahead of strategic compliance topics.

To excel in this role, you will have natural communication and social skills, including networking and the ability to influence. You are comfortable navigating internal stakeholders horizontally and vertically, and representing DRC externally with donors, peer organisations and in other forums. As the Berlin team is under development, we are looking for someone that can contribute to this development and is strong in building up relationships with the ID and the German network.

The role will further require substantial knowledge of the ID structure and funding priorities, including regulatory frameworks and contracting. This role calls for someone who is both a “thinker” and a “doer”: an ability to work on strategic-level analyses while being detailed, as well as result and service-oriented.

Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

Documented extensive experience with German institutional donors and donor engagement, especially with the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minimum 5 years working experience in an international, multicultural work environment, experience at country or regional level will be considered an asset.
Understanding of the links between compliance and building the image of a go-to organization for donors
Good relationship building skills and proactive approach to partnership building and nurturing.
Experience with networking and representation at all levels
Strong verbal and written communication skills with an ability to identify, address and communicate the core of an issue even if very complex.
Master’s degree in relevant field of study or equivalent in experience
Proficiency in German and English, and ability to live and work in Berlin, Germany
Professional proficiency in French, Spanish, or Arabic would be an asset.

We offer

Contract length: One year+ with the possibility of extension pending funding.

Duty Station: Berlin, Germany

Start date: as soon as possible.

This is a national position for which local terms and conditions apply.

Application process All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English.

Closing date for applications: 5 March 2024. Interviews are planned in the week of 11 March.

Further information

For questions regarding the vacancy please contact the DRC Country Representative, Marten Mylius at marten.mylius@drc.ngo. A**pplications sent by email will not be considered.**

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.

DRC - Danish Refugee Council

Latest Jobs

Senior Partnership Advisor (Re-advertisement)