Business Development Manager

Tags: finance English Environment
  • Added Date: Friday, 22 August 2025
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The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances childrenโ€™s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support childrenโ€™s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We wonโ€™t stop until we are all equal.

ROLE PURPOSE

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation/charity/non-profit [select as appropriate] that advances childrenโ€™s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support childrenโ€™s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We wonโ€™t stop until we are all equal.

The Business Development Manager leads Plan International Burkina Fasoโ€™s funding strategy to be aligned and responsive to the country strategy, assuring the financial needs to achieve its targets. She/he supports the Country Office (CO) to develop strong relationships with National Organisations (NOs) and relevant donors and partners in country.

The BDM is responsible for identifying funding opportunities in line with Plan International xx priorities and strategy, through donor analysis and networking. She/he is expected to stay updated on donorsโ€™ strategies and interests that are relevant to Plan International, to monitor funding opportunities and keep track of the funding pipeline. She/he will liaise closely with the Regional Office, Global Hub, National Organisations, in-country donor representatives and other stakeholders (NGO partners) and take part in relevant clusters, networks and WGs as requested. She/he may develop donor-facing communications to position Plan International for funding in line with its strategy.

As a staff member of a child-centred international development and humanitarian organisation, the BDM will commit to complying with Plan Internationalโ€™s standards and policies related to Safeguarding and PSHEA (Preventing Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse), gender equality, inclusion and diversity. All Plan International staff are expected to uphold the organisation's values and behaviours in every aspect of their work.

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE

The Business Development Manager will work closely with a variety of functions to ensure Plan International Burkina Fasoโ€™s growth, including Project Managers, Technical Advisors, PU Managers, Advocacy & Influencing Manager, Business Development Specialists and Country Finance team amongst others. The BDM is responsible for all funding to the organisation both sponsorship and grants. She/he will facilitate the funding approval process for all resources to a project. The BDM will also oversee the donor compliant design and timely submission of concept notes and proposal packages that deliver lasting impact for children, especially girls, in line with Plan International Burkina Fasoโ€™s Country Strategy and donor priorities.

The BDM is a member of the Country Leadership Team (CLT) and other relevant fora. (Add if applicable: This position shall line manage (a) Business Development Specialist(s).) Develops and maintains relationships with stakeholders both internally and externally. Develops strong and comprehensive donor proposal packages. Ensures the financial sustainability of the proposals by negotiating with the National Organisations and donors to ensure Planโ€™s cost recovery policy is adhered to. Being the key contact with donors and National Organisations, the BDM is responsible for ensuring all internal and external funding obligations are undertaken, including fund approval process and amendments, document retention, contract and donor compliance. The BDM will also work closely with the BD specialist to ensure proper set up of the funding for projects in the system along with linking the project with relevant funding sources. The BDM will also play a crucial role in the development of the country strategy especially on the Resource Mobilisation Plan. She/he updates and monitors internal organisational trackers as relevant, including pipeline and funding trackers.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

Resource mobilisation

Build relationships with in-country donors and NOs. Form strategic alliances with other INGOs, NGOs and donors in country. Lead the development and delivery of the fundraising strategy in line with the global and country strategy, ensuring input from key stakeholders within the organisation and alignment with donor priorities and programme needs. Identify any systemic and/or structural issues that may impede a rapid growth in funding and recommend and implement mechanisms to address them. Produce and regularly update a comprehensive mapping of all donor opportunities (by sector and geography). Track funding opportunities and pipelines including submission deadlines and funding available โ€“ both for institutional donor funding as well as funding from public appeals and donations. Support the development of the annual plans and budgets as needed, based on consultations with relevant team members. Update and monitor internal organisational trackers as relevant, including pipeline and funding trackers

๐Ÿ“š ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—š๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ฎ ๐—๐—ผ๐—ฏ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ! ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿค ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ก๐—˜๐—ช ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—š๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—ก ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฏ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—จ๐—ก๐—›๐—–๐—ฅ, ๐—ช๐—™๐—ฃ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—œ๐—–๐—˜๐—™, ๐—จ๐—ก๐——๐—ฆ๐—ฆ, ๐—จ๐—ก๐—™๐—ฃ๐—”, ๐—œ๐—ข๐—  ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€! ๐ŸŒ

โš ๏ธ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ง๐ ๐ž ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐‹๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐“๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐ž๐ญ ๐š ๐ฃ๐จ๐› ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐Ž๐–!

Project Idea Phase

Ensure project ideas are aligned with donorsโ€™ and NO priorities. Responsible for local donorsโ€™ intelligence and engagement. Responsible for NO engagement. Identifies funding opportunities with local donors and NO donors. Lead on the Go-No-Go Process for project opportunities. Lead the discussion about the CO internal funding when necessary. In charge of all funding approval for projects which include FADs, SPADs, GMFADs, Sponsorship communication and Global FADs Open to All.

Project Design Phase

Support the design of projects and lead the mapping into successful concept notes and full proposals in line with the country strategy and in accordance with donor requirements and guidelines, in coordination with the relevant NO. Ensure active and meaningful partner participation in development of proposal documents and that any additional time and resources required to facilitate this are identified and secured. Ensure concept notes and proposals align closely with the master budget, MERL frameworks, country priorities and Country Management Team (or CMT or CLT) decisions. Submit concept notes and proposals to National Organisations respecting deadlines. Develop the compliancy framework to support project design. Responsible for setting up a country FOA. Negotiate terms and conditions with local donors and review and approve terms and conditions for international donors. Lead FAD 3 process ensuring the organisational procedures and policies are complied with. Ensure Planโ€™s cost recovery policy is adhered to in the proposal development process and that the projects are fully funded via donors or other sources of funding.

Project Planning and Implementation Phases

Ensure all project and donor documents are filed and stored, e.g. call for proposal, concept note and/or proposals and annexes submitted, FADs, important emails and other relevant contract documents. Train project and support teams and any partner organisation on donor requirements with support of the National Organisations. Participate in project start up workshops and ensure a full and comprehensive handover of final an approved project documents. Maintain a reporting calendar with internal and external reporting and work closely with country teams to ensure deadlines are met, and high-quality reports submitted in line with project requirements. Provide updates and reports to the CMT/CLT, Regional Office, Global Hub, relevant National Organisations and donors. Liaise and coordinate with Programme or Project Managers and Technical Advisors, Advocacy & Influencing Manager, Business Development Specialists and Partnerships Coordinator as needed for donor engagement and external communication and reporting. Attend regular calls, meetings, etc. as required with NOs and in country donors. Leads on all communications with NOs and donors. Responsible for ensuring necessary amendment approvals are undertaken in case of any changes on funding to a project. Ensures the timely development of donor reports and analysis of the implementation plans to be used by the management team to track progress against targets, review and decision making; Works with the Finance and Program departments to review donorโ€™s narrative and financial reports and ensure the effective utilization of grants monitoring systems in terms of projections and forecasting, the monitoring of expenditure, negotiations with grantors for budget modifications and completion of project reports; Monitors, analyses and consolidates relevant grant information and disseminates where relevant within Plan International Burkina Faso;

Project closure Phase

Ensure that both donor and Plan compliance are adhered to at the end of the project. Support the assets transfers, staff separation and grants closure where applicable.

Additional Responsibilities

Responsible for keeping the organisational system, such as SAP, up to date at all times. Represents the Country Office with donors as needed. Custodian of all funding approval documents. Formally capture and disseminate learnings from successful and unsuccessful proposal submissions to help strengthening proposal development capacity in the country team, for young people and with implementing partners. Provide coaching, mentoring and advice to direct reports as required. Ensures that Plan Internationalโ€™s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan Internationalโ€™s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

Country Office (BD Specialist, Grants, Finance, Programmes, Technical Advisors, MERL, SCM, P&C, Partnership Manager and PU staff and CMT) National Organisations Regional Office Global Hub departments (PDR, finance, legal, humanitarian, communications)

External

In country donors Government embassies UN Agencies Networks Partner organisations Peer organizations

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Essential

Expertise and extensive experience in international development programming and fundraising relevant to Plan Internationalโ€™s global focus area. Knowledge of main donors for Plan International. University degree in relevant field. 3-5 years of experience in a similar role. Proven experience at a similar management level in a reputable international organisation. Understand the foundations of a good quality proposal design, donor landscape mapping. Understand the fundamentals of designing and delivering quality proposals and donor reports.

Skills

Strong management skills; Strong negotiation, facilitation and influencing skills; Analytical skills; Communication skills, adapted to the audience; Ability to speak, read and write English and French fluently. Ability to work in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment. Strong motivation and team building skills; Problems solving; Results-oriented staff; Proactive and attentive; Very good at prioritizing and understanding the importance of donor timelines. Use evidence-based to make choices and drive change. Ability to make effective, thoughtful and timely decisions to ensure programme safety. Ability to convert project designs into winning proposals. Great at building personal relationships with other INGO staff, local donors and NO staff.

Behaviours

Commit to work, take initiative to be innovative and creative in order to achieve results. Use resources as intended and can account for how they have been used. Actively seek win-win partnerships and finds common ground. Support the team to achieve its goals. Provide development space for colleagues, teams and partners. Listen to and understand the points of view of colleagues and partners. Draws on experience to ensure quality work. Defend and demonstrates Plan values and behaviours, which are rooted in feminist leadership. Have the courage to question the status quo, to challenge the way we work. Strive for quality in everything she/he does, meeting deadlines, continually working to improve performance. Take responsibility for oneโ€™s actions and learn from behaviours, successes and failures. Encourage children, partners and colleagues to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them. Create an environment where children, young people, partners and colleagues feel supported and safe. Listening to and understanding the views of colleagues and partners. Leverage the experience to ensure quality work. Always consider the risks related to the safeguarding aspect in all activities and interventions.

Desirable

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