Program Assistant - Business Development at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Summary:

• CRS is seeking a qualified and highly motivated individual who will support the CP’s Business Development Unit. Principally, the Program Assistant will focus on research, administrative and coordination functions in support of the CP’s grant acquisition efforts.
• The Program Assistant will support the BD Unit to ensure that CRS’ programs in Nigeria are of quality and represented well to the international community through effective project design, proposal development, and grant handover.
• Under the direction of the Business Development Specialist, the Program Assistant will work with the Programs and Operations teams, as well as other relevant internal and external stakeholders, in building strategic relationships, supporting the development of new proposals and start-up of new grants.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Strategic Positioning Administrative Support

• Assist BD Specialist in researching strategic donor information and gathering intelligence regarding impending opportunities.
• Assist is scheduling donor meetings and following up with key stakeholders.
• With support from the MarComm Coordinator, assist in planning donor influencing meetings/events.
• Assist the BD Specialist to establish/ strengthen relationships/ linkages and networks with key resilience actors and leading NGOs to gather donor intelligence and build collaborative relationships.

Programming and Proposal Development Support

• Assist the BD Specialist in working with operations and finance staff on administrative processes towards developing concept papers and prepare proposals.
• With the support of BD Specialist, regularly apply learning, emerging innovations, and best practices from project evaluations, field visit reports, project reports across the program, and from other NGOs and donors to new proposals.
• Assist BD Specialist in identifying and defining funding sources from appropriate public donors to support existing and planned programming activities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Basic understanding of the aid architecture (Humanitarian funding)
• Fluency in English
• Excellent writing skills (especially in English) with a focus on clarity, brevity, and research
• Public speaking and meeting facilitation skills
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office, Access, Google Platforms
• Strong planning and time management skills
• Work collaboratively with team members when
• Program development and management.
• Non-profit fundraising and donor relations.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant area (English, Int’l Development, Humanities, Social Work, health etc.)
• 1 to 2 years of experience required for the work in humanitarian or development contexts.
• Experience in large scale humanitarian emergencies
• Basic understanding of project design and proposal writing.
• Basic understanding of working with various major donors and their regulations.
• Basic understanding of CRS’ and Sphere relief standards, and the Red Cross and NGO Code of Conduct.
• The position requires ability and willingness to travel domestically up to 15 % of the time.
• Language Requirements: Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Writing experience.