Director of External Engagement | ReliefWeb 8 views

Salary: USD 94,857 per annum. This will be converted and paid in local currency dependent on location. This role will be paid at the rate for Grade G. We do not negotiate on salary.

Location: This role is global and is open to applicants based in any location. You must have an existing right to work in the country you are to be based.

If you are based in a country where we have an existing office you can choose to work from the office, from home, or a combination. If outside of these countries, you will be expected to work from home. In that case we would use an Employer of Record to employ you on our behalf.

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Contract: Full time and permanent contract (though we are open to considering applications from those who want to work on a part-time or job-share basis). At ADD we work a 4-day week, Monday to Thursday 30 hours per week. Expected start date is April 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

As an organisation that works with disability justice activists in Africa and Asia we are clear that lived experience of disability is hugely important to our mission. Priority for this role will be given to disabled people. We want to see you at your best and so please let us know if there are any reasonable accommodations at all that we can make to the recruitment process to ensure that it works for you. We are also committed to ensuring that we continue to review and make accommodations throughout your employment with ADD.

About ADD International.

ADD is a participatory grant-maker for disability justice. Our vision is for a world in which ableism no longer exists, and disabled people can fully participate in society. Our mission is to strengthen disability justice activists and organisations through resourcing, and leadership skills. In March 2024 we launched a new ten-year strategic framework which canbe found on our website here: https://add.org.uk/mtiririko/

We are transforming our organisation away from traditional development and getting back to our roots by sharing more power and resources directly with activists. Over the next ten years, we have a goal to provide £25 million long-term unrestricted grants directly to disability justice activists and movements. Crucially, we will also give disability justice activists greater decision-making power on who should receive funding and how funding should be spent.

Our new ‘Fundseeking’ Strategy outlines how we will raise the funding and cultivate the right partnerships to provide the flexible resources that disability justice movements need and that allow ADD to become the grant-maker we aspire to be. This is not a usual fundraising strategy. It decentres ADD’s own growth and instead focuses on using our position and proximity to wealth with intention to channel more resources to disability justice movements that are less able to access them. The first two years of this strategy have successfully raised £3 million in unrestricted funding from funders who share our vision.

The Opportunity

Between 2022 and 2025 our outgoing Director of Funding, Communications and Transformative Partnerships transformed ADDs approach to fundraising and led the team to raise over £3m in flexible funding to support our new strategy transforming our balance of income and making the commitment to change how we work possible.

Before she was offered an exciting new role, we had been working with her on a plan to rename the Directorate to become our External Engagement Directorate and for an interim period our Head of Individual Giving and Communications has stepped up into the role. We are now seeking to permanently appoint to this position.
The Director of External Engagement will be responsible for the outward facing work we do to bring in resources, communicate our work and influence funders to support our strategic framework, Mtiririko and also leads our External Engagement Team comprising Fund Seeking, Communications and Influencing work all of which support our strategic intent to ensure more resources flow to disability justice activists and their organisations. This includes line management of the Head of Individual Giving and Communications and our new Head of Philanthropic Partnerships and Influencing.

Key Responsibilities

• Be the Strategic Lead on the Senior Leadership Team responsible for fundraising, communications and influencing. Membership of the Senior Leadership Team
• Be our communications lead on the Senior Leadership Team, supporting our Head of Individual Giving and Communications to be accountable for external communications and media and for telling stories that challenge stereotypes and centre equity and justice
• Represent ADD externally as and when required, working with the Co-CEOs and wider Leadership Team to agree on who should cover specific external engagement opportunities
• Attend Trustee Meetings and report to Trustees periodically about our approach to External Engagement at opportunities agreed with ADD Co-CEOs
• Lead, coach and support the External Engagement Team to deliver on the goals of the department’s strategyensuring there is a clear operational plan for the next 6 months and beyond and identifying any improvements that might be made and gaps that may need resourcing.
• Lead our Overall Fundseeking Strategy FEB 2025.pdfprioritising forms of resource generation that shift more resources to activists and organisations in the global south and engaging with all staff across the organisation who have responsibility for raising funds and managing donors.
• Ensure excellent stewardship and relationship-building of our current donors and supporters, and work with the team to explore and make a plan for how to maximise the potential of our Ambassador programme and develop our ‘Friends of ADD’ offer.
• Ensure that we build relationships with prospective funders including mid-level and high net worth individuals and trusts and foundations to enable us to increase our income from all of these avenues of support.
• Coach and support the new Head of Philanthropic Partnerships and Influencing to develop and deliver a strategy for our Influencing work and ensure that we adequately resource our strategic objectives in this area.
• Coach and support the Head of Individual Giving and Communications to improve retention of our current supporters and test new strategies for raising funds from the general public, ensuring we deliver on our plans to maximise the potential of our existing supporter base and test ideas to recruit new supporters.
• Coach and support the Head of Individual Giving and Communications to lead strategic communications that support department objectives on learning, influencing and fundraising;including improvement of our social media presence, website and other donor communications.
• Work closely with the rest of SLT to Support resource generation for all of our work including identifying relevant opportunities in the countries where we make grants where appropriate; potentially through public, corporate and community funding as well as institutional channels.

Safeguarding level.

We are committed to ensuring we are a safe organisation that does no harm to people we work with. As we transition from project-based work to grant-making we recognise the power dynamics this creates that can make grant-seekers vulnerable to abuse and are putting in place robust systems to minimise risk to any communities we work with.

Our processes ensure all posts are graded, based on interaction with communities, persons or organisations of persons with disabilities. This post is a Level 3 post. See outline of all levels below:

• Level 1 – office based, no real direct access to communities, persons or organisations of persons with disabilities, and never alone.
• Level 2 – a travelling role, possible access to communities, persons or organisations of persons with disabilities but unlikely to be alone.
• Level 3 – regular access to communities, persons or organisations of persons with disabilities, including on their own, or lead responsibility for safeguarding within office/location. All SLT posts are Level 3.

About You

• Strong demonstrable leadership, coaching and strategic thinking skills
• Senior Leadership of external engagement and fundseeking in an International NGO, human rights or grantmaking organisation
• Experience in leading multi-disciplinary fundraising teams across multiple income streams including; institutional funding, individual giving, trusts and foundations and government funding
• Commitment to decolonising development and justice-based approaches
• Commitment to disability justice and anti-racism
• Ability to manage a broad and complex workload
• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills
• Ability to steward relationships with a wide range of donors (medium to large trusts and foundation, bi-laterals and individual supporters)
• Experience of influencing change in the funding, human rights and/or international development sector
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to adapt quickly to changing organisational needs
• Knowledge of funding for disability rights and justice would be advantageous
• Willingness to work remotely and travel as required
• Commitment to safeguarding and maintaining a safe environment

If these statements sound like you, then we highly encourage you to apply for this rare and exciting job opportunity at ADD International.

Equal opportunities.

We are keen to promote strong principles of equality and diversity and would welcome applications from all backgrounds. Disabled people are strongly encouraged to apply and as a ‘disability confident employer’ ADD guarantees to interview all disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria. We also prioritise applications from disabled people, this means that we first only review applications from those who identify as disabled. Only if we are unable to recruit from this group will we review other applications.

For more information on this please see our Equal Opportunities Policy.

Safeguarding.

The nature of ADD’s work as participatory grant-maker for disability justice means that our staff, consultants, trustees and volunteers may come into contact with children and vulnerable adults in some capacity or another. As we transition from project-based work to grant-making we recognise the power dynamics this creates that can make grant-seekers vulnerable to abuse.

ADD is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all staff, consultants, trustees and volunteers to share this commitment.

At ADD, we’re committed to creating a safe and rewarding environment for all of our people to work and volunteer, as well as for those we come into contact with through our work.

This means we have robust safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure everyone is treated properly, and a whistle-blowing policy and process so people can raise any concerns they have, confidentially.

For more information on this please see the safeguarding pages on our website.

Data protection.

ADD International is aware of its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Bill and is committed to processing your data securely and transparently. For more information on this please see our ‘Job Applicant Privacy Notice’.

Due to the nature of our roles, interacting with staff in our different countries, staff from our overseas offices are often involved in the recruitment process. This requires us to send applications (and therefore personal data) outside of the EU. By applying for this role, you are indicating your permission for ADD to send your personal data outside the EU.