Find World Changing Social Impact Jobs Here

ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 1000+ villages in 6 countries and has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model's adoption and impact on rural communities - on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach, Impact and Values on our website.

Spark seeks a strategic and seasoned leader with a significant experience of leading systems change in partnership with national and local governments to lead Spark expansion strategy. This role requires working with our Country Directors and other key colleagues to scale our programs in partnership with governments while maintaining program quality and compliance with organizational and donor policies.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), where rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organize, conceptualize and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The FCAP has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement. Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, training team, design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the FCAP with local partners and government, train partners, and support quality monitoring and oversight. The size and scope of country teams depend on the needs of our partners. In

WHO YOU ARE

You are a seasoned professional with previous experience as an entrepreneur and leader of a social impact organization. You have direct experience supporting board-level discussions and strategy, and understand the challenges and opportunities a CEO faces scaling to over $10M in revenue. You are excited to join us at a crucial juncture in our growth when we are investing in expansion, growing our program and in-country partnerships, and focused on maintaining sector-leading quality as we scale.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The President will report to the CEO, and is a key leadership role supporting the CEO and board. The President will also sit on Spark’s board and provide additional support and perspective for the board and CEO. This role will be part-time at 50% capacity. This role will not have direct reports but will interact heavily with the rest of the leadership team.

1. Responsibility: Support CEO and Leadership Team

Duties:

• Board meeting preparations: Work with CEO and leadership to ensure thorough preparations for board and external meetings.
• CEO and leadership support: Provide strategic and operational support to leadership team. Act as a trusted thought partner to the CEO, contributing to key discussions, decisions, and initiatives.
• Budget and finance review: Collaborate closely with the CFO and leadership team to develop and manage budgets, analyze financial performance, and drive data-informed, sustainable growth.
• Facilitate management / board alignment: Facilitate alignment between the CEO, staff, and the Board of Directors to ensure strategic consistency and clear progress tracking.

2. Responsibility: Active Board Member

Duties:

• Board materials and communication: Oversee the development, execution, and delivery of critical board materials, processes, and communications to ensure transparency and operational excellence.
• Recruiting: Lead efforts to identify and develop a strong pipeline of qualified candidates for board expansion and succession planning.
• Strategic guidance: Provide strategic guidance and advisory support to the board, ensuring alignment with the organization's mission, vision, and long-term objectives

3. Responsibility: Ad Hoc Support

• Provide capacity as needed to other domains of the organization.

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• 8+ years experience as CEO, C-Suite, and/or Founder of a social enterprise or impact-driven organization.
• 8+ years direct experience building and managing board relationships and presenting to the board.
• Demonstrated success in running and scaling multi-million dollar donor relationships.
• Demonstrated success in building and supporting an executive team.
• Excellent English written and oral communication.

SAFEGUARDING

Our safeguarding follows a do-no-harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimize harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment in compliance with the World Bank Environmental and Social Framework and national legislation in the countries where we operate.

OTHER INFORMATION

Job Location: Flexible. Preference is for this to have overlapping hours with Eastern time zone in the US.

Time: This is a Part Time position (Estimated 50% Time)

How to Apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/129

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.