External Relations Manager

GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly

Maputo, Mozambique
Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2023

About GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. GD has raised over $800M since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1.2 million recipients, and launched offices in 11 countries. We’re continuing expansion across the Global South. Over the past decade, GD has also supported large-scale, experimental research, expanding the evidence that cash has a positive short and long-term impact on recipients. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We continue to grapple with balancing inclusivity of all cultures and experiences while maintaining cohesion in our values. While there is much that we are still learning, we take care of one another, have fun, as well as provide flexible working hours wherever possible.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or any other status protected by law.

Senior Manager - External Relations

Job Type: Full-time

Location: Maputo, Mozambique

Reports to: Country Director

Level: Senior

About this role

The Senior Manager External Relations role is a key managerial role in GiveDirectly Mozambique’s leadership team. Alongside the Country Director, the External Relations Manager will be responsible for developing and implementing an external outreach strategy to create awareness of GiveDirectly’s work and ensure buy-in at all levels of government. The External Relations Manager will engage new and existing donors’ in Mozambique to ensure GiveDirectly can sustain and expand its programs. The External Relations Manager is also responsible for understanding and tracking in-country external risks and developing mitigations for these. The role will involve working with our communications team to record high-quality recipient stories and attract positive coverage from the media. The role rewards an exceptional understanding of local and national government in Mozambique, a highly autonomous working style, and the ability to develop strategically advantageous relationships.

Responsibilities

1. Government relations

  • Build relationships with national and local government officials to improve GiveDirectly’s cooperation with the government and identify allies and champions of our work.
  • Support GiveDirectly’s expansion into new areas and maintain existing operations by securing national and local government approvals.
  • Represent GiveDirectly at government events and meetings at the national and local level.
  • Develop high-quality reports for national and local government authorities.
  • Provide support to field teams that guarantees adherence to national and local government protocols.
  • Collaborate with the Country Director and country management team to ensure regulatory compliance.

2. Fundraising & partnerships

  • Build relationships and support for GiveDirectly with donors and potential implementing partners in Mozambique.
  • Support national fundraising efforts by identifying opportunities, supporting proposal development and producing pitch materials.
  • Communicate GiveDirectly’s program activities to donors and implementers through outreach, reporting and presentations.
  • Participate in multilateral fora such as technical working groups and humanitarian cluster coordination meetings.
  • Organize donor visits and events.

3. Media Relations

  • Develop strong relationships with key members of the local and national Mozambican media, including journalists, presenters and other influencers.
  • Source story ideas from across GiveDirectly projects and translate them into compelling and effective content.
  • Serve as a liaison between the communications team in NYC and local program team, both proactively and reactively.
  • Work closely with the Senior Manager Programs to monitor Community relations risks and provide mitigation alternatives that cushion GiveDirectly from reputational and existential risks.
  • Manage internal and external communication on sensitive issues relating to our program.
  • Monitor mass, online and social media to ensure that the right messaging around the organization is being delivered.

4. External relations tracking

  • Track priority and health of our relationships and proactively design new strategies to improve our engagement with stakeholders.
  • Maintain a comprehensive stakeholder matrix for GiveDirectly in Mozambique.
  • Identify possible future risks and areas of non-alignment with stakeholders and work with different teams to implement preventative actions.
  • Liaise with the internal audit team on any risks flagged from field investigations that have external relations risk.

Desired qualifications:

  • Bachelor's or master's Degree in a relevant field
  • At least 5 years' experience in the development sector
  • Detailed understanding and demonstrated experience working with national level government in Mozambique.
  • Demonstrated experience in resource mobilization. Experience with key donors such as USAID and FCDO is preferred.
  • Experience working with and representing organisations to national media.
  • Outstanding interpersonal skills, comfortable representing Give Directly across a wide range of stakeholders.
  • Exceptional communication (written and verbal), organizational, and analytical skills.
  • Demonstrated success in a high-performance work environment.
  • Ability to approach tasks with resourcefulness and to work in a self-directed manner.
  • Professional fluency in Portuguese and English
  • Strong interest in advancing the values and mission of Give Directly

Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first here.

About the hiring process

Format: The hiring process follows the same general outline for all open roles:

First interview (30 mins)
Take home skills assignment (~2 hours)
Second interview (1 hour)*
Third interview (1 hour)*
Final interview (1 hour)
Reference checks (30 mins each)

*For some roles, second & third interviews are combined into a panel interview. If there are adjustments or variations on this process, those changes will be communicated during the first interview.

Venue: We conduct interviews over Google Meet with camera on (unless communicated otherwise).

Accessibility: Closed captioning is available during all Google Meet interviews, and interviewers will also post interview questions in the chat box throughout the call. If you need assistance accessing either of these features, please let your interviewer know at the start of your interview!

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

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