Job title: International Programs Coordinator
Status: Full-time
Division: Programs
Location: Alexandria, VA
Position Summary:
The position supports grants management activities and processes, which includes reviewing and evaluating proposals for potential grantees, and drafting approved grant agreements. The position also serves as a liaison for grant activities with internal divisions and with several external entities, creates reports and presentations, and supports grants administration and monitoring activities. Position focuses on seasonal programs, strategic and thematic projects and works across the regional portfolios. The candidate must show the commitment to IRUSA’s faith inspired values and principles as well as a commitment to the vision and mission of the organization.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Field and sector expertise
- Maintains a deep knowledge of international humanitarian standards
- Understands the nature of working in conflict and post-conflict zones
- Assesses the likelihood of successful implementation of projects in multiple regions
- Serves as an internal expert on the seasonal programs and grants within Islamic Relief USA
Strategy input
- Contributes to strategic development and operational planning for international programs and the organization
- Compiles programmatic information and data to provide summary and analysis that informs organizational strategy
- Makes recommendations for improvement on existing strategies and policies
External Representation
- Represents IRUSA in relevant forums, seminars, conferences, panels, etc., shares information on IRUSA programs to raise the profile of the organization, and synthesizes critical issues and discussions of promising practices for IRUSA
- Participates in regional and sectoral working groups and forums, and monitors current events to stay well informed about trends and developments in the region
- Conducts research on industry best practices and incorporate those into programs
Grants Management
- Supports and assists grants management activities and processes for IR USA’s international-based program grants
- Reviews and evaluates incoming grant proposals and proposed grant budgets
- Recommends grant proposals for approval or denial, as a first level review, based on proposal evaluation, utilizing pre-set evaluation standards
- Maintains grant proposal summaries and documents due diligence efforts
- Creates program summaries for internal project review committee and provides project documents to IR USA’s executive management for review and approval
- Drafts grant agreements for approved grants and serves as liaison between IR USA and grantee as assigned
- Reviews and maintains approved grant agreement reports and documents these through the in-house database
- Assists in the administration of payments to approved grantees
- Liaises with grantees for inquiries on progress reports and problem resolution
- Provides administrative support regarding grants reports, presentations and program maintenance
- Proactively detects issues and recommends ways to resolve them
Monitoring, Evaluation Learning
- Maintains program database and recordkeeping for purposes of monitoring and tracking grant progress
- Conducts monitoring and/or evaluation visits where IRUSA is funding programs to assess program quality, field capacity, compliance, and to gather lessons learned
- Provides feedback to field staff and shares site visit reports and updates internally to contribute to improvement of program quality
Program Communications
- Communicates program information internally to other divisions in the organization
- Reviews marketing materials for program correctness before publication
- Provides content to marketing division for development of fundraising materials
- Gathers case studies, photos, videos, interviews, etc. and provides to marketing division to support fundraising efforts
- Responds to requests for information from Donor Services and Fund Development divisions, especially to address queries from the donor community regarding IRUSA’s programs
- Communicates with Islamic Relief field offices and maintains regular relationship with partners
- Performs other duties as necessary
Qualifications and Competencies:
- Bachelor’s degree in Economic Development, International Studies, or related discipline, preferred
- Minimum 2 years’ experience working in grants environment with knowledge of grants review
- Minimum 2 year of international field experience in emergency and/ or post emergency context
- Must possess effective interpersonal and oral communications skills. Effective written communications skills should include some exposure to generating reports and narratives
- Must exhibit analytical and strong problem solving skills
- Ability to self-manage multiple priorities that are complex in nature
- Proven ability to exhibit cultural competence and sensitivity to work with a wide array of ethnicities.
- Technical proficiency in Microsoft Office and use of databases
- Ability to travel internationally, to remote locations, if needed ( a minimum of 15% of the travel time)
- Must be flexible in working hours and will be required to work on holiday and weekends occasionally
- Experience with program monitoring and evaluation
- Fluency in one of the regional languages is strongly recommended
- Must be eligible to work in the United States