Grants Manager (National position)

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have a long-term impact.

The Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania, and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine. Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.

The Position

The Grants Manager is a key member of the team working to facilitate the program, adheres to, and is accountable to commitments related to time, scope, and budget. S(he) will support the Ukraine cash consortium Mercy Corps program department as the point person for communicating Mercy Corps Ukraine humanitarian activities through donor reports and will also contribute heavily to the integration of program initiatives and contribute in a substantive way to program work planning across program departments. This includes the collation of information from each operational department into concise and clear narratives supported by statistical evidence and case studies.

The Grants Manager should also facilitate a common vision and understanding among the team of BHA compliance and reporting format requirements and communicate those out as needed. S/he will also serve as the focal point to ensure compliance with Mercy Corps internal systems of PM@MC and must possess a basic understanding of internal standards in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and accountability. S/he is an integral part of the Mercy Corps Ukraine team and is expected to develop an operational understanding of activities and strategy.

S/he will also be supporting the drafting of new proposals and developing the initial narrative and budget requirements, in close collaboration with the program team. As such, the Grants Manager is expected to liaise across all departments. Finally, s/he is a contact person for internal communications within Mercy Corps on crucial program activities, success stories, and other useful updates for the broader Mercy Corps audience in close coordination with the communications advisor.

The Grants Manager will work under the direct supervision of the UCC Mercy Corps Program Lead and work with finance, PaQ, Program Managers, communications, security, and all other field and HQ departments in coordinating all grants/reporting-related tasks.

Essential Responsibilities

REPORTING AND GRANT MANAGEMENT

• Coordinate the preparation of timely program and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
• Lead on producing internal reports, including sitreps, ensuring timely inputs from program, finance, and operations teams, and ensuring review, and signoff processes are thorough and adhered to.
• Ensure that the filing structure meets minimum PM@MC standards and that program folders are populated and archived accordingly.
• Support coordination and document all Program Kick-off and Close-out meetings, track action points for follow-up, and record/document all lessons learned.
• In close collaboration with the Program Lead, provide draft answers to donor questions and requests while ensuring compliance with donor regulations.
• Maintain and update project management tools, including funding trackers, grant trackers, and dashboards.
• Support with the development and tracking of the program work plan and program stakeholder management plan.
• Work closely with the MEL team to collect information on program monitoring, progress, and quality to support ongoing reporting, proposals, and other operational management tools.

PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT

• Lead the development of Mercy Corps contribution to UCC concept notes and funding proposals (including log frames and budgets), coordinating the development process with all team departments and under the guidance of the Program Lead. The portfolio includes a variety of donors, including major institutional donors, corporate organizations, trusts, and private donors, among others.
• Ensure proposals and concept notes are developed promptly and with realistic deadlines and that these are communicated and understood by internal stakeholders to the office, the region, and HQ.
• Ensure proposals are developed in coordination and consultation with program technical advisers, finance, and operations teams (including logistics and infrastructure) and that necessary support is adequately budgeted.
• Organize/coordinate proposal kick-off meetings, maintain proposal development calendar and ensure timely contributions from teams.
• Coordinate internally and externally to ensure that all proposals are reviewed and approved by the relevant parties as appropriate before submission.
• Ensure that concept notes and funding proposals align closely with response strategies, sector program plans, master budgets, and M&E frameworks.
• Support the MEL team with the planning and implementing program review exercises incorporating learning into new proposals.
• Support the Partnership Team and Program Managers with developing and reviewing partner proposals and reports as necessary.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Act as the focal point for full compliance with PM@MC minimum standards for program management.
• In coordination with Finance, support BVAs, and with the Desk, lead donor reporting meetings presenting up-to-date information.
• Support the finance team with initial budget development and ensure consistency with program planning.

CROSS-CUTTING TASKS

• Produce other information and communications products, in collaboration with the Communications and Crisis Analytics teams, for internal and external audiences as required.
• As delegated, act as a focal point for all queries and information requests from Mercy Corps and donors.
• Represent Mercy Corps to donors and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Contribute to creating a secure environment for team members.

Supervisory Responsibility – None

Accountability

Reports Directly to: UCC Team Lead

Works Directly With: Each department: Program Teams, Finance, PAQ, communications, Operations, security and & Access, and relevant HQ departments

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, and other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in designing, monitoring, and evaluating our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• 3 to 5 years of experience in grants management experience, with a proven track record.
• Strong knowledge of compliance and grant policies of institutional donors – specifically BHA.
• BA/BS or equivalent
• Excellent oral and written English skills required;
• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Mercy Corps Core Humanitarian Competencies (as defined in the Humanitarian Capacity Framework) preferred.

Technical competencies:

• Understands core humanitarian and program management Standards and ensures they are met
• Can support rapid needs assessments, in line with Mercy Corps’ approach and the industry’s best practice
• Can develop SOPs in line with Mercy Corps’ Minimum Standards

Functional competencies

• Possess project management skills and applies PM@MC minimum standards for all phases of the project cycle
• Can monitor program budgets, project cash flow, and expenditures
• Understands donor regulations and compliance.
• Can effectively apply relevant Mercy Corps procedures and approaches
• Supports team members through capacity building
• Can ensure team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies

Leadership competencies

• Recognizes opportunities for innovative action and creates an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed
• Broadens influence by role modeling and leveraging networks

Success Factors

The successful candidate will combine exceptional organizational abilities and writing skills with good humor under pressure. S/he will learn and move between all departments to consolidate essential information for accurately reporting Mercy Corps activities in Ukraine. S/he will be able to capture strategy and planning into concise and clear documents in new proposal development. The candidate will be organized and maintain a transparent electronic and paper filing system. S/he will take the time to learn and understand donor compliance and help ensure best practices are upheld throughout the entire grants management process. The successful candidate will ultimately be able to provide constructive input to this extensive relief program and, therefore, must be willing to learn from others. In particular, best practices in cross-cutting issues include accountability, partnership, gender, and protection. S/he must be focused on capacity building of national staff in line with Mercy Corps nationalization aims; have strong program support and information management skills.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable, and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal-opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

How to apply

Please apply here:

GRANTS MANAGER – UKRAINE RESPONSE – Kyiv, Lviv | Mercy Corps Ukraine (ultipro.com)