Senior Manager, Peacebuilding & Partnerships (Two-year fixed term)

Position Summary:

Humanity United is seeking a Senior Manager to co-manage a participatory multi-donor initiative that will provide creative and flexible support to nonviolent social movements advancing human rights, democracy, and sustainable peace around the world. For the first year of this position, the role will be embedded within the Peacebuilding team during the startup phase of the initiative, with a focus on developing and maintaining important donor, advisor, and grantee relationships and building scalable practices for participatory grantmaking, engagement, and reporting. 

Following their time with Peacebuilding and drawing from their experience developing and managing the multi-donor initiative, the Senior Manager will transition to support the design and execution of a diversification strategy and operational plan as HU seeks to expand its focus on public/private partnerships, donor collaboratives, and other opportunities to bring new funding to the field. This position will last another 12 months, and will potentially continue on an ongoing basis after the initial two-year fixed-term position for the successful candidate. 

Peacebuilding Component: 

The multi-donor initiative  seeks to leverage philanthropies’ unique attributes to provide external support in a manner aligned with principles of localization and Do No Harm, working alongside the $45M commitment of USAID’s Powered by the People (PxP). The Collective Action Assistance Fund (CAAF) will be hosted by Humanity United Charitable Fund (“HUCF”), a 501(c)(3) public charity affiliate of Humanity United, dedicated to transforming violent conflict and human exploitation into enduring peace and freedom around the world.

CAAF seeks to fill key gaps in resourcing social movements that are unaddressed by traditional aid and grantmaking, with decisions and strategy guided by movement leaders, activists, and ecosystem actors. CAAF will enhance the ability of donors to collectively support those on the frontlines of democracy, human rights, and peacebuilding. We expect that CAAF and its participatory practices will serve as a model for future coordination and collective responses across philanthropies, bilateral agencies, and importantly, at HU and its associated entities.

The role will require critical thinking and problem solving; cultivating and maintaining relationships with movements, ecosystem actors, and donors; facilitating agreements among multicultural teams based around the globe; and managing an array of internal and external facing operational requirements (grant making, contract making, budget management, inbound / outbound reporting). The role will also contribute to the ongoing learning goals of the multi-donor initiative, in partnership with the Director, Peacebuilding Partnerships; Manager, Programs; and funding partners. The Senior Manager, Programs will work closely with these roles and the broader peacebuilding portfolio team, as well as colleagues across the organization.

The successful candidate will be highly relational and skilled at operating in a multi-stakeholder environment. They will ideally have experience working with movements and informal networks, as well as delivering on project management in complex and changing environments. They will have experience managing teams and working across cultures, languages, and perspectives.

As the ideal candidate, you will bring an understanding of how programs and stakeholders can work seamlessly together to serve the organization’s mission.  You will have experience working with movement campaigns and/or human right issues. French or Spanish language skills are a plus. 

Partnerships Component:

Following their first twelve months embedded with the Peacebuilding team, the Senior Manager will fill a newly created Partnerships position at a pivotal time for Humanity United. HU is undergoing a shift to enhance, diversify, and coordinate funding for the fields in which it works. Drawing from their experience with the Peacebuilding team and CAAF, this role will support donor engagement and lead the organization’s work to build scalable systems and practices to operationalize multi-donor initiatives housed within HU and its affiliates. 

The Senior Manager will build and align operational practices with programmatic needs and support the buildout of a new development / partnership toolkit to enable new strategic partnerships with governmental and private donors.  Familiarity with donor engagement, reporting, grant writing, and budgeting / accounting will be critical aspects of the role.  The Senior Manager will bring a deeply collaborative and problem-solving mindset to ensure alignment between programmatic initiatives with the Finance, Grants Management, and Legal teams. As this is a newly scoped position, other duties may evolve and the successful candidate may be invited to remain at HU beyond the 12 months in this role. 

Location & Reporting: 

Based in New York City, San Francisco, or Washington DC, this role will initially report to the Director, Peacebuilding and Partnerships during its time embedded with the Peacebuilding team, and will thereafter report into a new structure for partnerships to be determined within the organization. This is a full-time two-year fixed-term exempt position, with the potential to stay with the organization beyond two years for the successful candidate.

Candidates should be able and willing to travel internationally & domestically up to 25% during the initial 12-month period with Peacebuilding, and up to 10% thereafter. Our hybrid work approach provides ongoing flexibility for regular remote work for this position, combined with periodic in-person gatherings.

Core Job Responsibilities:

• Co-manage the participatory infrastructure for HU’s initial multi-donor initiative
• Solicit grants proposals and manage proposal compliance and standards 
• Facilitate and manage the decision-making body for the participatory grantmaking practices
• Hold key relationships with program partners and internal stakeholders 
• Contribute to strategy, design, and coordination meetings with funding partner representatives 
• Monitor and evaluate program performance for multiple audiences including HU’s (and its associated entities’) funding partners, and coordinate donor-facing reporting 
• Present trade-offs in terms of grantmaking approaches and make decisions in consultation with other stakeholders
• Develop, map, and manage donor networks and fundraising efforts in consultation with programmatic portfolio leads
• Support the development and execution of participatory partnership models for HU and its affiliated entities
• Structure and support emerging opportunities, including donor cultivation & ongoing engagement
• Partner with Operations team leads to establish strong internal communications, scalable, compliant, and efficient processes, and a robust CRM system
• Support Communications team in developing development collateral materials, including talking points for senior leadership
• Support continuous learning and improvement in our partnerships and projects to inform the design of future projects
• Track and share learnings from multi-donor funds, to help inform and improve HU and its associated entities’ internal management 
• Manage clear communication with donors and networks to ensure transparency and effective engagement 

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Must-have requirements:

• Commitment to HU’s mission and values (including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice) is a must, with a view on how to apply the principles of DEIJ within grantmaking and peacebuilding work
• Demonstrated & progressively more responsible work experience including working in a nonprofit, donor or philanthropy setting, with the ability to leverage existing philanthropic and/or bilateral networks
• Demonstrated experience as a grantmaker including hands-on involvement with participatory grantmaking, multi-donor funds, trust-based philanthropy and multi-year grantmaking
• Program management experience in fast-paced and rapidly shifting environments, including program design and the ability to manage complex internal and external operational requirements
• Ability to situate programmatic work within broader intellectual, political, and philanthropic trends
• Experience in development, fundraising and project management, including donor engagement, reporting and grant writing
• Experience in managing and facilitating agreements with diverse, global stakeholders and teams, across cultures, languages and perspectives
• Experience with grassroots movements, human rights defenders, and/or informal networks, including cultivating and maintaining relationships
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Candidates must have the right to work in the United States and travel internationally

It’s a bonus if you bring:

• Bachelor’s degree, equivalent qualifications or equivalent experience 
• Budget management and donor-reporting experience
• French or Spanish language skills
• Direct lived experience of the issues we work on and cross-cultural experience. 

We encourage qualified candidates with informal or indirect experience to describe how their background has served as preparation for this role.

Salary: The salary range for this position will vary by geographic location to account for local job market & cost of living. Starting salaries within the range are based on job-related skills, experience and background. At HU, salary progression is based on performance and proficiency in a role over time. 

Example starting salary ranges for 2024 are provided below, with other locations available on request. We will share more about the starting and full salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

• San Francisco - $148,194 - $164,660
• New York - $140,784- $156,427
• Washington DC, Boston, Seattle, LA - $133,375 - $148,194
• Chicago, Denver/Boulder, Philadelphia - $125,965 - $139,961

Humanity United believes that diversity, equity and inclusion make us more successful in our work, and we are able to grow and learn better together when our team is diverse and representative of the communities we serve. We are actively engaged in a formal DEIJ journey as an organization, and expect that prospective employees are enthusiastic about advancing these goals. 

We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and staff. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of education, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran status, color, class, religion, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status and any other characteristics protected by law. We strongly encourage applications from people with diverse identities or who are members of marginalized communities.

HU is proud to offer all staff an inclusive and comprehensive benefits package to accommodate a diversity of needs and life circumstances and to accommodate staff at all life stages with flexible and supportive benefits. Our benefits include medical, dental and vision insurance, life and disability insurance, flexible spending account, 401(k) plan, paid vacation and sick time with generous holiday closures, paid parental leave, charitable gift matching, employee assistance program and mental health support via our partnerships with Modern Health, Calm and Headspace, commuter benefit, wellbeing benefit, phone and home internet benefit, hybrid work flexibility and half-day Fridays.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to fully access our benefits of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation, or describe your needs in your application.

Humanity United’s Values:

We encourage all candidates to learn more about our organizational values at https://humanityunited.org/about/