Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Fundraising Operations

• Steer vision for the fundraising department and own departmental goals, fundraising projections, and keep AC management updated on progress. 

• Serve as a thought partner to the Co-CEOs to translate fundraising strategy and ideas into actionable plans and high quality deliverables by driving execution with the team that move fundraising relationships forward.

• Lead, build, and grow the fundraising team, and make the calls on how the team should be structured as the organization’s budget doubles from ~$5M/year to ~$10M/year in the next few years, driving towards our $50M by 2030 goal. 

• Manage relationships with contracted fundraising service providers — including scoping their engagements, coordinating deliverables, and integrating their work into the team's overall strategy.

• Direct the team to design, improve, and implement the right systems (e.g., CRM, pipeline tracking, reporting cadence) that lets the team operate efficiently and gives leadership visibility.

• Build the right mix of in-house staff and outside consultants to ensure the whole Fundraising team is leveraging their unique strengths to achieve maximum impact.

Prospect Strategy & Pipeline Development

• Build a framework for evaluating and qualifying major-gift, HNWI, foundation, and institutional prospects, and ensure the team can effectively build a prioritized, well-researched pipeline (especially for targeted events).

• Design the strategy and cultivation plan for priority prospects — the strategic thinking behind who to approach, how, and in what sequence — while others on the team execute the outreach itself. You will eventually build capacity and mentor the fundraising and executive support teams to drive relationships forward.

• Oversee pipeline cultivation to ensure highest potential leads are elevated to Co-CEOs with full research, strategy and preparation needed to move leads towards a commitment.

• Streamline, design and manage rigorous and repeatable systems for prospect research and relationship management across the full portfolio of donors.

• Guide the strategy and narrative for grant proposals, concept notes, and reports. You’ll be responsible for ensuring the team delivers on high-quality reporting to funders and grant products. 

Business Development

• Lead business development to diversify and grow the organization's funding base beyond current relationships. You’ll be responsible for representing AC at events and conferences, meeting with new and existing funders, and helping build interest of new potential funders. 

• Manage portfolio of funder relationships, new & existing, cultivating their commitment and giving to AC’s mission.

• Identify and shape AC’s overarching revenue pathways in collaboration with Co-CEOs - whether that’s through new grant partnership models (e.g., institutional, corporate, multilateral) or earned revenue, focusing on opportunities that drive funding to African-led organizations.

• Own the forecasting and reporting against pipeline and revenue targets.

Thought Partnership & Sector Engagement

• Stay genuinely well-plugged into the funding sector — interfacing with peer organizations, understanding funder priorities, and having a finger on the pulse of where the field is moving to draw insights that can inform our fundraising & advocacy strategy.

• Collaborate with the Advocacy & Strategy team on speaking and writing opportunities so that you can represent the organization externally at sector convenings and events as needed.

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What You'll Bring

• You know the potency & power of impact when it is driven by local changemakers and want to be a part of changing philanthropic systems to make that the norm rather than the exception.

• You have led the effort to secure multi-million-dollar individual grants or gifts and contributed to growing an organisation’s annual revenue from single-digit millions to double-digit millions over multiple years (e.g. towards $20M+ overall). Previous experience fundraising for an intermediary or fund is an added advantage. 

• You have strong strategic thinking and proven experience translating fundraising goals into strategic and actionable plans, setting goals across funding sources, and exercising sound judgment in evaluating prospects. You are also a strong thought partner to leadership, who is able to ideate and shape solutions.

• You have at least 10 years of progressive fundraising/development experience, ideally spanning foundations, major gifts or HNWI cultivation and business development. You understand that different fundraising audiences require different strategies and relationship-building approaches and you can build a complementary team with the skills to engage each audience effectively. 

• You have a track record of proactively building and cultivating a strong and sustained pipeline of prospects and opportunities. 

• You have exceptional project management skills, with a proven ability to keep multiple fundraising workstreams moving simultaneously across different stages, reprioritising as needed and keeping the organization focused on key priorities. 

• You bring strong emotional intelligence to fundraising, balancing the science of fundraising with the art of relationship-building. You understand the nuances of different funders and adapt cultivation and stewardship approaches creatively to each audience and relationship. 

• You have successfully built and managed strong fundraising teams, with a clear understanding of the different capabilities and roles needed to drive organisational goals.

• You are an effective people manager who can hire, develop and guide a high-performing team, as well as manage external consultants and structure outsourced engagements where needed. You are comfortable building and evolving a fundraising function that is still taking shape.

• You have a successful track record of building and overseeing efficient and effective fundraising systems, and building the team’s capacity to adopt and use them effectively.

• You have a way of building relationships that is focused more on trust, allyship, and strong values alignment rather than just conversion of conversations-to-dollars. 

• You have strong existing relationships and credibility in the philanthropic sector relevant to the AC’s work.

• You are comfortable challenging traditional power dynamics in the philanthropic sector. AC strives to make funders better through education and advocacy, and we do this by thinking about the implications of funder requests on our partners.

• You have exceptional communication skills and world-class responsiveness - both internally and externally.

• You are a highly agile individual who is able to navigate a rapidly changing philanthropic environment and adapt strategies and approaches without losing momentum or focus. 

• Based in Europe or the U.S., with the ability to work effectively across time zones with the rest of the team. Replace: You are based in Eastern or Central European Time, or the U.S., and are able to collaborate effectively across time zones while keeping work on track during approximately 20% travel. 

• You are excited to contribute to thought leadership through speaking and writing, and comfortable representing the organisation externally at relevant sector convenings and events. 

• Expression of AC’s seven Culture Tenets: 1) Human-centered approach, 2) Mission-aligned, 3) Integrity, 4) Agility and flexibility, 5), Intentional team player, 6) Goal-oriented and proactive, and 7) Next-level contribution.