Grants and Partnerships Manager for Asia and the Pacific

The International Fund for Public Interest Media (the International Fund) is looking for an outstanding individual with an in-depth understanding of media markets in Asia and the Pacific (APAC) and a vision for the future of journalism to join the newly established Fund as a member of its regional team as a Grants and Partnerships Manager.

The Role

Reporting directly to the Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, the Manager will:

• Manage projects across various work streams for the regional team including grant-making, grant management, and research;
• Support the development and implementation of the International Fund’s strategy for the region and individual countries within the region. All strategies need to be context-specific and rooted in a clear political-economic analysis of each market;
• Support the development of the International Fund’s approach to ecosystem change across the medium to long term through research and building partnerships with relevant stakeholders across media, academia, civil society, and government;
• Source a pipeline of grant opportunities that meet the criteria for support from the International Fund across the region;
• Prepare the necessary diligence and research for the International Fund to issue grants, including but not limited to the financial analysis, editorial analysis, and evaluation of leadership prospective grantees;
• Manage grants including overseeing monitoring and evaluation, in close collaboration with the regional and central teams, under the Regional Director’s leadership;
• Collaborate closely with Fund colleagues (in particular, the What Works Unit), on monitoring, evaluation, and communication of lessons learned with respect to funding and supporting public interest media;
• Support the development of partnerships between CSOs, media development organizations, media, and government (where appropriate) to improve strategies focused on improving public access to information in the region;
• Ensure coordination, collaboration, and partnership with other media funders and media development actors active in the region.
• Support the monitoring and management of risks (including political risk) at the country and regional levels.

Candidate Profile

Essential Profile

• Minimum 5+ years of relevant experience in a similar role;
• A deep understanding of journalism, media and the challenges they face in Asia and the Pacific. An understanding of media markets and business models, the development context in the region and a vision for the future of journalism and media in the region;
• Commitment to public interest journalism;
• Experience in financing or providing grants to media or civil society organizations;
• Project management experience with a demonstrated track record of both strategic thinking (taking a concept and developing it into a program) and execution (taking it to market);
• Strong organizational skills that reflect the ability to multitask, prioritize and solve problems;
• Experience setting up systems for knowledge and data management;
• Experience working on wide-ranging projects with multiple levels of stakeholders;
• Ability to work collaboratively within a distributed, multi-cultural team based across many geographies;
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills;
• Comfortable working in ambiguity and asking the right questions to bring clarity;
• Flexibility to adapt to developing processes and frameworks.

Desirable Profile

• Strong networks and in-depth knowledge of concepts and approaches relevant to supporting and sustaining public interest media in the region, or one of the International Fund’s focus countries;
• Experience working with bilateral and/or multilateral donors;
• Experience designing, implementing or overseeing monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks and tools;
• Experience managing teams.

Education

• University degree or equivalent experience.

Working Language

• The International Fund’s working language is English. Additional language skills, particularly for our focus markets, would be an advantage.

See more here to learn more and apply.