Deputy Vice President of Programs

Global Fund for Children (GFC) works to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong, and valued. We partner with innovative, locally-led organisations, helping them deepen their impact and mobilize their capacity for social change. By pairing flexible funding with targeted capacity development support, we help our partners grow stronger and more responsive to challenges on the ground.

Since 1997, we have invested more than $44 million in over 700 organisations. Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas: education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and freedom from violence and exploitation.

We value courage, excellence, learning, partnership, and inclusion, as well as kindness and passion. Our partners’ visions for change inspire all we do. Feedback and learning drive us to do better, and we strive to be youth-centered.

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‍The Role
We are looking for a Deputy Vice President of Programs to join our Global Programs team. This is an exciting new role for GFC, and we are looking for a passionate and experienced leader with a commitment to fostering engaged and inclusive teams and to social change that positively affects the lives of children and youth and their communities.

GFC is embracing shared leadership at our Board, CEO, and regional program levels. In this spirit, and as a member of our leadership team, this new role will work in close partnership with our Vice President of Programs to support a high-performing, global, dispersed 'team of teams', including 4-5 senior-level direct reports, contribute to the evolution of GFC's programming and partnership approach, external representation and influencing, and organizational journey.

The regions and areas of focus for this new role will depend on geographic location, experience, and interests of the new hire, as we aim to identify someone to build a complementary partnership with the Vice President of Programs. GFC's Programs team of approximately 30 people is comprised of four regional teams: Africa; Americas; Asia; Europe and Eurasia; and Learning and Evaluation. We anticipate starting a new regional concentration in the Middle East/West Asia.

With GFC's guiding stars of centering children and youth as leaders and changemakers and contributing to community-driven systems change, the Deputy Vice President of Programs will contribute to deepening our internal and external relationships, experimenting with and learning from emerging and democratic grantmaking practices, evolving our trust-based accompaniment of community-based organizations and individual activists; sensemaking and learning across diverse thematic initiatives, and influencing the sector toward practices that help ensure that communities, in all their complexity, are ultimately owning and sustaining changes they desire.

This exciting new role has the potential to be shaped by the new postholder in collaboration with the Vice President of Programs depending on their skills and experience. Key responsibilities will include

• Program strategy and development:
  • Within GFC's de-centralized approach to program development in which priorities and programs are influenced by our community-based partners, young people, and regional teams, contribute strategic oversight and thought partnership to regional strategies, program ideas and design, and effective implementation.
  • Contribute to overall program development that reflects GFC values and priorities, especially related to participatory, community-driven processes, funding opportunities, trends and currents in the geographic areas under your responsibility.
  • Collaborate with our Development and Marketing team to advance the stability of funds for our programmatic work involving contributions to fundraising, proposal writing, reporting, presentations, and engagement with institutional and major donors and prospects.
  • Share responsibility for embedding and implementing culturally relevant safeguarding practice across programmatic work.
  • Depending on experience, contribute to building partnerships in the Middle East/West Asia in a leading or supporting role
• Team management:
  • Offer mentoring and thought partnership through line management of directors of two of GFC's regional teams and others as needed.
  • Support Director-level team members to mentor and manage their direct reports with a focus on skill building and professional development.
  • Contribute to community building, exchange and learning across a multicultural, virtual team working in multiple time zones.
• Strategic leadership:
  • As a member of GFC's leadership team, contribute to strategy, programmatic priorities, policies, budget management, culture and values, and stakeholder relations.
  • Advance GFC's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through specific practices and actions.
  • Contribute to information sharing and collaboration across teams.
  • Model collaborative, shared leadership through the working relationship with the Vice President of Programs

• Board relations:
  • Support productive engagement with the Programs Committee of the Board of Directors and overall board, sharing responsibility with Vice President of Programs and deputizing as needed.
• Influencing, learning and representation
  • Partner with GFC's learning and evaluation team to help make sense of patterns and trends across our learning, champion innovative and participatory approaches and products, and use insight in strategic ways.
  • Advocate for shifts in the philanthropic sector that reflect the aspirations of those with lived experience of oppression and marginalization.
  • Stay abreast of philanthropic and global trends that influence how we work.
  • Build relationships with peers for mutual learning and collaboration.
  • Represent GFC externally.

Our ideal Deputy Vice President of Programs will be a values-driven, leader with a strong commitment to practical implementation of wellbeing and diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). You are committed to challenging traditional paradigms in philanthropy and working toward a reality where young people and the communities they are part of use their power to affect positive change.

You will enjoy developing a collaborative, generative leadership approach with our Vice President of Programs working with some of our regional teams to advance and strengthen their programming and helping spark connections across regions. You will have significant experience in building strong relationships with donors, peers and other key stakeholders and contributing to development of an evolving global team with decentralized spheres of influence. You will have the ability to manage multiple, complex streams of work, and the skills to communicate well with different audiences. We welcome and encourage applications from GFC staff members. The position is open to applicants native to and residing in the Global South.‍

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Essential experience and skills

• Self-awareness and commitment to personal and collective wellbeing
• Significant people management experience, including mentorship of senior-level staff, with a focus on fostering community and learning across a global, 'team of teams'
• Strong, creative facilitation skills in a variety of settings
• Experience in theory and practice of participatory, community-led approaches within philanthropy or social change more broadly
• Understanding and appreciation of needs, aspirations and dynamics of grassroots and community-based organizations
• Demonstrable leadership experience within the non-profit sector with a preference for philanthropy and/or intersection with child and youth rights through lived or learned experience
• Experience in the social sector with a preference for direct experience in and/or with community-based organizations in the Global South, ideally including experience outside of your country of origin
• Experience with and appetite for contributing to advocacy and influencing in the philanthropic sector
• Experience building and nurturing relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and roles
• Professional fluency in English
• Experience with budget management, participatory strategy development and/or implementation
• Strong understanding of safeguarding cultures and practice
• Ability to manage multiple strands of work to a high standard, balancing competing priorities
• Familiarity with nonprofit boards
• Demonstrable commitment to practical DEIA and experience of embedding this within your work
• Willingness to travel internationally up to approximately 8 weeks per year
• Strong commitment to GFC's mission, values and vision
  

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Desirable experience and skills

• Ability to speak at least one language connected to GFC's current and future partners, such as Spanish or Arabic
• Experience with grantmaking
  

Our team dreams big.

We work together to build a world where all children and youth are safe, strong and valued.

GFC fosters a caring work environment that promotes collaboration, respect, and professional development. We set standards of excellence and quality in our work, firmly believing that children and youth deserve the best we can offer.

We believe that every person has equal rights, and we affirm the diversity that enriches our globalized world. In line with these core values, it is our policy to actively seek diverse candidates from a variety of backgrounds who are committed to Global Fund for Children’s mission.

Our values shape our vision, guide our daily decision making, and signal to the world what to expect when you encounter Global Fund for Children. We hold ourselves to these values to best serve our local partners and the children and youth they support. We attract talented people from all over the world because we believe deeply in living our values.

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Salary - US-based salary range is $120,000-$150,000; global locations will be benchmarked accordingly, dependent on location, available benefits, and experience.

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Flexible Working Location – The role is open to applicants native to and residing in the Global South. Given a hybrid, dispersed team, candidates should be comfortable with a home-based work environment with a flexible work schedule when needed that overlaps with morning hours EST when many cross-team meeting are held. Candidates should be authorized to work in the country where they are living. GFC will not be able to provide relocation costs.

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Learning – GFC encourages professional development as a part of our culture and values. GFC provides regular opportunities for training, collaboration, and mentorship. Employees may access professional development funds to support continued learning.

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Benefits - We strive to build a culture that embraces care and wellbeing. Our global employee benefits include:

• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans
• Generous paid time off (annual leave, sickness leave, wellbeing days, sabbatical leave, family friendly leave)
• Flexible work arrangements - remote/hybrid/compressed work schedules

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*Other benefits may apply, depending on the location of the employee

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