Job opportunity

Proposal Writer

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) Kingston upon Thames, England 3 years ago

Job description

Support VSO to respond to restricted funding opportunities – developing and writing competitive funding proposals in coordination with VSO bid teams

Task Responsibilities

Maintain familiarity with the VSO Volunteering for Development methodology to be able to articulate it without diluting the donor request – using multiple aspects of Volunteering for Development
Attend the proposal planning sessions and capture the key content for the proposal and play back to the Practice Area/ programme development and quality leads
Rapidly produce bid materials (proposal, presentation, concept outline) that bring a project idea into a concrete, fundable proposition based on identified ‘win themes’
Provide bid development leadership for single and multi-country bids, and global calls, where VSO is a member of a consortium (as lead or sub)
Complete the proposal narrative incorporating recommendations from relevant reviewers
Prepare and coordinate a bid development plan with timeline and ensure the agreed bid development process is followed including internal proposal risk assessment and sign offs by senior leadership
Manage and lead diverse and dispersed proposal bid teams to deliver highly competitive concept notes and full proposals for all funding sources
Ensure Value for Money arguments, Theories of Change and Cost Recovery are clearly articulated in all proposals
As part of the wider business development team, provide high quality proposal review to other proposals (where not the lead)
Identify, collate and share good practice and learning around donor requirements and agreed programme portfolio

Collaboration responsibilities

During proposal development processes the Proposal Writer will mainly collaborate with the following teams/roles:

Technical experts (Practice Areas & Core Approaches for project design and alignment to programme strategy)
Programme Development & Quality Leads (to understand and articulate the application of Volunteering for Development methodology)
Business Pursuit (to ensure alignment to donor ToR and reflection of win themes)
Resourcing and People Team (to develop proposal staffing plans)
Duty of Care (to risk assess the proposal on aspects of safeguarding, medical and security)
Finance (to ensure a quality budget is developed that allows full cost recovery)
Global Implementation Team (to assess the feasibility of the project)
M&E (to develop a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning plan for the respective proposal)
Senior Management (presenting proposal risk assessment and allowing senior leadership to sign off on proposal submission)

Lead multi-disciplinary bid teams and ensure all relevant colleagues can effectively contribute to the design and costing of funding proposals.

Educated to degree level in international development-related discipline or the equivalent in experience
IT skills including fluency in Microsoft Office suite and database usage

None

Proven experience of writing compelling, high quality documentation (concept notes, presentations, proposals, budgets, reports, logframes, Theories of Change etc) for different international donors
Proven track record in writing winning donor proposals for donors including USAID, EC, FCDO and UN Agencies – excellent knowledge of donor proposal formats, logframes and budgeting
Familiarity with M&E tools; theories of change, monitoring frameworks and basic evaluation techniques
Strong communication skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills
Experience of leading and facilitating workshops and training for a range of stakeholders
Proven experience of establishing and negotiating partnerships between organisations; experience in developing and writing consortia proposals and teaming agreements as part of consortia bid development
Strong administrative and organizational skills: ability to be self-directed and take initiative

Interested candidates to click the link to apply before 8th January 2022.

https://bit.ly/proposalwriterr