Vacancy: Junior Fundraiser (40 hours / week)

Do you have experience in fundraising and do you like to work in a fast-paced international environment? We are looking for a junior fundraiser with expertise in business development and project management to join our institutional relations and partnerships team in Brussels.

Who are we?

As a Junior Fundraiser with expertise in business development and project management, you will work in the institutional relations and partnerships team to help increase the quality of and diversify ECDPM’s funding base. The team builds and nurtures relations with ECDPM's partners and institutional funders, and coordinates our business development and fundraising activities.

What will you be doing?

In terms of fundraising and business development, you will:

• Help develop new project ideas and initiatives, assist in researching and identifying potential funders, and contribute to the conceptualisation, finetuning and finalisation of fundable projects.
• Screen and help select calls for proposals or tenders, help evaluate and prepare framework contracts or requests for services, and identify and negotiate with relevant partners. You will help update and collect administrative documentation, prepare methodologies and budgets, and when required, identify relevant external expertise.
• Help manage and expand our network of experts, clients, associates and partners.
• Assist in researching and providing background on potential funders, including governments, multilateral institutions, foundations and academic institutions.

In terms of project management, you will:

• Support the successful implementation of projects (both technical assistance (TA) and framework contracts) and provide support and expertise to the projects’ teams, ensuring effective team organisation, high-quality results and reporting, and timely delivery of project outputs within budget.
• Provide project management support to ECDPM staff when needed.
• Support client relations and represent ECDPM in engagements with funders, donors, partners and experts.

In terms of internal work, you will:

• Actively participate in meetings with ECDPM’s policy teams and project working groups, discussing ideas and new fundable initiatives, and supporting the development and implementation of the ensuing work plan for ECDPM’s clusters.
• Help build and maintain internal databases, including those on projects and experts.
• Oversee the update and collection of administrative documentation needed for submitting proposals and tenders, and be responsible for finalising the administrative aspects. 
• Provide support on topics of interest to the institutional relations and partnerships team.
• Support the professional presentation of ECDPM materials and ideas in engaging and accessible formats.

Other activities may be assigned to your portfolio, depending on your experience and the needs of ECDPM's other teams. 

You will report to the senior business development and fundraising officer. You will be based in our Brussels office. Some travel between our office in Brussels and our head office in Maastricht is required.

Who are we looking for?

Our ideal candidate:

• Has two to three years of proven experience in fundraising, business development and project management.
• Is organised and detail-oriented, can easily adjust to shifting priorities, and can work effectively under tight deadlines in a dynamic knowledge environment.
• Has a university degree in a field relevant to ECDPM’s sectors of activity (for instance, social sciences, humanities, law or economics).
• Has a C2 proficiency level in English and a B2 level in French (written and spoken), and a demonstrated ability to write clearly and persuasively under time pressure (this will be tested for shortlisted candidates).
• Has a genuine interest in ECDPM’s mission and objectives.
• You have proven knowledge of the EU’s international cooperation policies and instruments, the practical guide to contract procedures in EU external actions (EU PRAG), and funding procedures of other donors (for instance, the World Bank, the Danish International Development Agency or the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency).
• Has demonstrated experience working professionally with common information systems (including Google Workspace and MS Office), databases and AI tools.
• Is a natural team player.

It would be an asset if you: 

• Have experience supporting fundraising within a knowledge institution environment (for example, a think tank, research institute or university).
• Have prior (work or internship) experience with ECDPM partners and/or funders, such as the European Commission, foundations, operational agencies, consultancies, academic research funding agencies or ministries of foreign affairs.
• Have experience with Salesforce.
• Have experience with desktop publishing software such as Canva, as well as preparing clear and accessible PowerPoint presentations.
• Have a master's degree in an area relevant to ECDPM’s analytical work.
• Are fluent in other EU languages relevant to our fundraising activities.

How to apply?

If you are interested in the position, please send a completed application form to jobs@ecdpm.org before Thursday 9 January 2025, 17:00 CET, clearly explaining your motivation and how you meet the job criteria. The subject line of your application should read: ‘Junior fundraiser’. We will only consider applications that are complete, on time and in English.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete two sets of timed written exercises ahead of the interview – to showcase their analytical and research skills, and their capacity to work under pressure. French language skills will be tested during the interview.  

Privacy statement

We will treat the information you submit with respect. We will store your information on a confidential section of our cloud storage, which is only accessible by our human resources and ICT departments, as well as members of the institutional relations and partnerships team. After the vacancy has closed, we will keep your information in our system for one year. After this period, your details will be deleted. If you wish that we do not keep your details after the vacancy deadline has passed, you may indicate this in your application. For more information, have a look at our privacy policy.

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