The function also plays a central role in strengthening donor confidence and advancing strategic funding opportunities through enhanced collaboration across Country Offices, regional teams, donors, strategic partners, and the wider WWF Network. By driving programme excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement, PQRA contributes to a stronger, more resilient, and results-oriented WWF Africa portfolio.
2 MAJOR FUNCTIONS
The Expert, Fundraising and Proposal Development - Congo Basin is responsible for supporting the growth and diversification of funding opportunities for WWF Congo Basin Country Offices through effective donor engagement, strategic positioning of programmes, pipeline coordination, proposal development support, and fundraising planning.
This role contributes proactively to identifying and positioning strategic funding opportunities, regional trends and WWF conservation priorities to support Country Offices in securing resources aligned with regional and country priorities. The position also supports quality assurance, donor compliance, and timely coordination of proposal development processes as needed.
The postholder is expected to maintain strong follow-through, coordination, responsiveness, and delivery of agreed fundraising priorities within established timelines.
3 MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Resource Acquisition and Pipeline Coordination
- Maintain and regularly update a regional funding opportunity pipeline for the Congo Basin portfolio.
- Monitor donor priorities, geopolitical and funding trends and identify relevant bilateral, multilateral, foundation, and private sector opportunities aligned with WWF conservation priorities and emerging regional needs.
- Coordinate timely sharing of donor intelligence, market insights and funding opportunities with Country Offices and relevant technical teams to support proactive positioning and strategic engagement.
- Proactively identify emerging funding opportunities, donor interests, and innovative financing trends relevant to conservation and sustainable development in the Congo Basin region.
- Support the tracking of proposal development processes from opportunity identification through submission and contracting.
- Maintain regular working sessions with Country Offices to ensure timely follow-up on resource acquisition priorities and proposal development processes.
- Contribute to annual fundraising planning, forecasting, and reporting processes.
- Support additional resource acquisition, donor engagement, partnership development, and portfolio growth priorities as requested by the line manager to contribute to a strong and coordinated Africa fundraising portfolio.
Proposal Development and Coordination
- Coordinate and actively contribute to the development, strategic positioning, drafting, and high-quality, donor-ready concept notes and proposals ensuring strong technical coherence, and alignment with donor priorities and competitive funding landscapes and internal quality assurance standards.
- Lead or support the development of proposals in alignment with required donor formats and standards and provide proposal writing capacity for countries as and when needed.
- Take primary responsibility for drafting assigned proposal sections and consolidating inputs into coherent donor-ready submissions.
- Coordinate the preparation and submission of concept notes and proposals in collaboration with Country Offices, technical teams, and WWF Network partners.
- Support proposal teams to ensure submissions meet donor requirements, internal quality assurance standards, and agreed timelines.
- Facilitate internal coordination across programme, finance, safeguards, and operations teams during proposal development.
- Support consolidation of proposal inputs, budgets, annexes, and supporting documentation.
- Monitor proposal timelines and follow up with relevant teams to ensure timely delivery of inputs and approvals.
Donor and Partner Engagement
- Support the maintenance of relationships with priority donors, partners, and WWF Network offices.
- Contribute actively to donor engagement processes through coordination of meetings, follow-up actions, donor briefs, and communication materials, and donor intelligence gathering.
- Support Country Offices in strategically positioning programmes and initiatives to donors and partners based on donor priorities, funding trends, and regional opportunities.
- Contribute to donor mapping, engagement planning, and identification of strategic partnership opportunities across the conservation and development sectors.
Capacity Strengthening and Internal Support
- Support Country Offices in strengthening resource acquisition practices, proposal development, and donor compliance processes.
- Contribute to the sharing of tools, templates, lessons learned, and good practices across the region.
- Support onboarding and orientation related to fundraising processes and quality assurance requirements.
- Promote timely compliance with QA and donor requirements across supported projects.
Monitoring and Accountability
- Maintain accurate records of proposals, donor engagements, submissions, and funding status.
- Provide regular updates on pipeline status, proposal progress, and fundraising performance.
- Escalate delays, risks, or bottlenecks affecting proposal development or submission timelines.
- Ensure assigned deliverables are completed within agreed timelines and standards.
- Per WWF International Fundraising and Public Sector Partnership processes and the Regional and National Strategic Cycles, advise the Director, Programme Quality in setting annual grant income projections for the region.
4 PROFILE
Required Qualifications.
- Degree in International Development, Environmental Management, Conservation, Business Development, Project Management, or related field.
- At least 5 years of relevant experience in fundraising, donor coordination, proposal development, programme support, or partnership management within an NGO or international development environment.
- Demonstrated understanding of donor priorities, geopolitical trends and conservation financing opportunities relevant to the Congo Basin and the wider African region.
- Demonstrated experience contributing to the development and successful positioning of donor proposals and concept notes for bilateral, multilateral, foundation, and/or private sector donors.
- Strong understanding of donor landscapes, fundraising trends, and strategic positioning within the conservation and international development sectors.
- Ability to proactively identify opportunities, build strategic relationships, and position programmes competitively in evolving donor environments. Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder processes and working across teams.
- Familiarity with bilateral, multilateral, foundation, and/or private sector donors.
- Experience supporting grant management, pipeline tracking, or donor reporting processes.
- Experience working in multicultural and matrixed environments.
Required Skills and Competencies.
- Strong organisational and coordination skills.
- Strong follow-through and ability to manage multiple priorities and deliverables effectively.
- Good proposal development and writing skills.
- Attention to detail and ability to manage competing priorities effectively within deadlines.
- Strong interpersonal, influencing and donor engagement communication skills.
- Ability to work collaboratively across teams and functions.
- Strong planning and task management skills.
- Ability to proactively follow up on actions and maintain momentum on deliverables.
- Fluency in both spoken and written French and English languages
- Commitment to WWF values: Courage, Integrity, Respect, and Collaboration.
- Good facilitation and influencing skills and the ability to support and train staff and partners.
- Strong cross-cultural negotiation, partnering, networking and representational skills.
- Ability to travel within the Congo Basin Region as required.
- Embraces the WWF mission and values of the organisation: Courage, Integrity, Respect & Collaboration.
5 WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
Internal.
Reports to the Director, Programme Quality, and interacts extensively with the Regional
Director, and Conservation Impact Director, Congo Basin, the Head or Resource Acquisition for Africa, the PQRA team, Global Fundraising team, Country Offices, Regional initiatives, and other departments at WWF International.
Exter nal.
Bilateral and multilateral public sector partners, donors, foundations, corporates other
NGOs; conservation and Development Partners as requested by the line manager.
Please upload your covering letter and CV in English. Priority will be given to applications with both documents indicated.
Deadline for applications: Wednesday 17th June
Work permit restrictions may apply.
Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert early.
At WWF, we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace where every individual feels valued and respected. We believe that a diverse workforce will help us to achieve our mission to stop the degradation of the Earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to providing fair and unbiased consideration for all candidates regardless of their background. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply and join us in fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace.
IN FRENCH
Vous souhaitez contribuer à un avenir meilleur pour les populations et notre seule et unique maison commune, la Terre ? Travailler au WWF pourrait être l'opportunité de votre vie.
Partout dans le monde, les gens prennent conscience des effets dévastateurs du changement climatique et de la dégradation de la nature. La situation actuelle est pire que les prévisions les plus sombres d'il y a seulement dix ans, poussant des milliards de personnes au bord du gouffre et menaçant leurs vies et leurs moyens de subsistance. Au WWF, nous sommes confrontés à notre plus grande crise - et à notre plus grande opportunité jamais vue - pour créer un avenir meilleur pour les populations et la nature. Forts de plus de 60 ans d'expérience et d'une présence active dans plus de 100 pays, nous œuvrons pour mettre en œuvre des actions concrètes sur le terrain et des mesures politiques à l'échelle mondiale, allant de la protection et de la restauration des espèces et de leurs habitats à la transformation des marchés et des politiques vers la durabilité.
Nos collaborateurs viennent d'horizons extrêmement divers et possèdent des compétences variées, allant de la science de la conservation et du plaidoyer aux ressources humaines et aux finances. Nous accueillons les candidatures de toute personne convaincue de pouvoir nous aider à relever cet immense défi mondial et à générer l'impact urgent en matière de conservation nécessaire pour restaurer notre planète.
