Project Development Manager

Reports to: Director of Business Development
Responsible for (personnel): N/A
Start date: ASAP
Term: Permanent, full time
Based in: London, N1 (Currently working from home due to COVID-19)
Salary: £40,000-£45,000 per annum, depending on experience, plus 5% pension contribution and private health insurance
Application deadline: 12th March 2021

About DMI

Development Media International (DMI) creates evidence-based behaviour change campaigns to improve health and save lives. We deliver at scale to maximise impact and cost-effectiveness. We are the first organisation to scientifically demonstrate that mass media can increase life-saving behaviours. In 2018 DMI published the results of its 5-year, £7m randomised controlled trial (RCT) in West Africa which showed that 56% more children were taken for treatment for malaria, 73% more for diarrhoea and 39% more for pneumonia following exposure to our campaign. Modelling indicates that over 3000 lives were saved during the campaign and that our approach is one of the most cost-effective ways of saving children’s lives. We have subsequently undertaken a second RCT which showed that the modern contraceptive prevalence rate was 20% higher in areas exposed to DMI’s messaging compared to areas that were not.

DMI has two priorities: first, to continue to generate ground-breaking research, second, to take our proven strategies to scale, saving as many lives as possible and improving health. We work across a range of health issues, including child survival, reproductive health, nutrition, hygiene, and early childhood development. DMI works in close partnership with leading experts in health, including WHO, UNICEF and LSHTM and has been funded by some of the world’s most prestigious organisations including the Wellcome Trust, DFID, Comic Relief, the Global Innovation Fund, Unorthodox Philanthropy and the Mulago Foundation.

We are an innovative and rapidly growing organisation, working at the nexus between science and creativity. DMI has demonstrated that knowledge is not only a human right but is also the key to saving lives in a cost-effective way. Our intellectual rigour, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn from both our successes and mistakes, makes us distinct. Our ethos is non-hierarchical: all our staff are intellectually high-powered, and we have a “best idea wins” culture. By working at DMI you will have a genuine, measurable impact on improving lives in low-income countries.

DMI has a permanent presence in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania and has recently expanded to Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia. Our headquarters overlooks the Regents Canal in Hoxton, London and provides the strategic direction for the whole organisation.

DMI is ranked as one of the most cost-effective non-profit organisations in the world by GiveWell and was the first organisation to receive the maximum rating from Impact Matters. It is also endorsed by the Centre for Effective Altruism, Giving What We Can and The Life You Can Save.

Find out more on our website.

Job description

DMI is looking for an experienced individual, with a proven track record of securing sustainable institutional funding, to be our Project Development Manager as a part of our Strategy and Development Team.

This is a new permanent role at DMI, and your primary responsibility will be to secure funding for DMI’s projects, which you will help to design. We have enjoyed significant fundraising success over recent years, particularly from private foundations, securing more than $40m in new funding since 2017. This has enabled DMI to expand rapidly, both geographically and in terms of the themes of our campaigns. To continue this trend, we are aiming to raise an additional $20m by the end of 2022. This funding will allow us to consolidate our project portfolio in existing countries of operation and allow us to expand our work in West Africa.

The Project Development Manager will be an integral part of our business development from major institutional donors, including the FCDO, USAID, the World Bank and major bilateral donors. S/he will be responsible for cultivating these relationships, as well as relationships with potential consortium partners.  A particular focus will be on high-value and complex proposals to major funders, including securing attractive consortium roles for DMI.

More specifically, the Project Development Manager role will include the following responsibilities:

1. Securing long term and sustainable funding for DMI’s work, especially from institutional donors (governments, EU, UN). DMI is aiming to raise $20m of new funding over the next 2 years
2. Proposal writing / leadership and bid-management, including working with DMI’s country offices and partners (when in consortium)
3. Partner identification and cultivation (for working in consortium)
4. Donor networking and cultivation
5. Contributing to building DMI’s funding pipeline by Identifying new funding opportunities and analysing them for suitability
6. Representing DMI externally, including to funders and partners
7. Other tasks as requested by DMI

Person specification

Required knowledge, skills and experience

1. Extensive knowledge of the international development sector and institutional funding (Governments, EU, UN)
2. Extensive experience of leading on successful NGO project proposal to institutional donors, including experience of leading on ‘commercial tenders’ (from the FCDO and others)
3. Previous business development experience relevant to the job description, including partner identification and cultivation, budgeting, proposal writing etc.
4. Excellent writing skills, including for an external audience. This is particularly important for this role and will be assessed during the recruitment process, the successful candidate must be able to write clearly, concisely, and with flair
5. Highly developed analytical skills, including numerical skills
6. Enjoy working under time-pressure, with excellent time-management skills and remain good-humoured under pressure
7. A degree in a relevant field, preferably a Masters, or equivalent experience
8. Permission to live and work in the UK

Desirable knowledge, skills and experience

1. French (or Portuguese) language skills, including the ability to write in French
2. Knowledge of the health sector in developing countries, esp. Africa
3. Experience in working with USAID or other US government funding
4. Knowledge of fundraising from trusts & foundations
5. Relevant experience working and/or living in a developing country