Learning and Development Officer, Nashville or D.C. preferred

Location: remote position, based in U.S., preferably Nashville or D.C. area. Occasional travel to Kenya.

Posting Date: 4/ 28/ 2022

Background

Founded by a group of committed Kenyans, Lwala builds the capacity of rural communities to advance their own comprehensive well-being. We support communities to design, implement, and evaluate solutions to their most pressing health challenges. Then, we build coalitions of communities, health workers, government, and universities to generate evidence of impact and infuse these insights into the formal health system in Kenya and beyond. This bottom-up change promises holistic solutions that are custom-built for the systems they are meant to reform.

The Role

Lwala is growing our strategic partnership and grants management capacities to meet organizational needs and fundraising goals. In the last five years, we have grown from $1.3 million to over $8 million in annual revenue, with support from private foundations, technical health funders, and individual donors. In order to implement our ambitious 2025 Strategy, we expect to raise $50m over this 5-year period.

Lwala’s reporting, development, and communications processes have been growing over recent years to better drive feedback loops within the organization and to external stakeholders. The Learning and Development Officer will support Lwala’s Development and Program teams to make strides in improving its data systems, driving feedback loops, reporting, proposals and communicating externally.  These organizational elements are intertwined and require communication and coordination between them in order to drive impact, learning and growth.

Further, the Learning and Development Officer will support team members in growing their skills in writing and telling stories. Helping to build the capacity of team members in their ability to fully understand, talk about and share program results that directly benefit the overall mission of Lwala Community Alliance. The Learning and Development Officer sits within the Development team, with significant collaboration with program teams, research and learning, and finance.

Key Responsibilities

Position Description: The responsibilities of Learning and Development Officer include, but are not limited to, the following:

Grants Management and Reporting

• Own a portfolio of grants and lead reporting to those funders
• Support stewardship and engagement strategy for institutional donors
• Support Research and Learning team to maintain donor metrics and KPIs, produce impact dashboard and manage workflow of reporting data
• Contribute to the comprehensive database of current grant funders and track reporting requirements and deadlines
• Support production and content development for donor reports, quarterly Insider Reports and Annual Reports
• Assist program teams with creation of conference abstracts, research presentations, and donor presentations
• Support business development and new partner scoping

Proposal Development

• Lead in outlining and drafting letters of inquiry, concept papers, and proposal submissions for new grants and grant renewals, with special attention to program narratives, work plans, milestones, and budgets
• Support program team in the development of program strategies, theories of change, work plans, and key performance indicators

Grants Finance

• Work with Grants Manager to ensure high-quality grants finance management and accurate allocation of grant funding
• Coordinate with finance team to ensure accurate financing reporting for donors

Other

• Support communications on an ad hoc basis, including releasing e-blasts, posting to social media, and making website updates

**Other duties as assigned

Qualifications and Experience Required

• A degree or relevant experience in international development, public health, public administration, communications, statistics or related field, masters degree preferred
• Experience working in a field-based position in East Africa
• 2 - 3 years of experience in grants management, monitoring & evaluation, communications and/or fundraising
• Strong writing abilities, both creative and analytical, with strong editing skills required
• Experience with nonprofit grants, donor reporting and budget adherence
• A background in grant compliance and reporting to institutional foundations
• Keen attention to detail
• Ability to learn quickly and take initiative
• Process-oriented with capacity to develop and drive workplans and meet deadlines
• Maturity to tolerate nuance, handle competing priorities, and communicate with executive-level leadership
• Flexibility to work across time zones
• Patience and resilience
• Self-motivation and resourcefulness
• A proven ability to work with teams
• Successful experience working with people from different cultural backgrounds
• Curiosity and a sense of humor

What we offer

●      Competitive salary with opportunity to grow

●      Full benefits package, including health coverage

●      Matching retirement plan

• Flexible hours and generous leave
• Exposure to global collaborators and opportunities to travel internationally
• Room to innovate and challenge systems

●      A fun, collaborative and fast-paced working environment

To Apply

Please send the following to recruitment@lwalacommunityalliance.org with the subject line “Learning and Development Officer US:”

• Current CV/resume.
• Letter of Interest detailing related skills and experience.
• 3 professional references with name, title, email, phone contact, and relationship to the applicant.

Position is open until filled. We recommend submitting an application within 2 weeks of the posting date.  Women, BIPOC, and East Africa and Kenya Diaspora are especially encouraged to apply.

Note: This position requires frequent communication with members of the Kenya staff who sit 8 or 9 hours ahead of CST U.S. time, depending on Daylight Savings.