External Relations Specialist

Position Overview 

Educate!, is looking for an External Relation Specialist to help us move forward with new and existing relationships that will enable us to reach our goal of impacting millions of youth annually. As External Relation Specialist, you will serve as a key member of Educate!’s External Relations team, building and maintaining relationships with new and existing partners, and supporting critical project management and compliance with new and existing funding opportunities. While this job will sit on Educate!’s External Relations and Fundraising Team, the role does not require business development or fundraising experience. We are looking for a strong critical thinker and collaborator, with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, who can help manage organizational partnerships and relationships.

Educate!’s work impacts youth across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, and we are currently in an exciting period of growth. The External Relation Specialist will work closely with Educate!’s External Relations team, reporting to Educate!’s Head of Partnerships, to develop and implement strategies that generate resources to support the organization’s next phase of growth. The right person for this role will enjoy interacting and collaborating with stakeholders in and outside the organization, managing complex projects, and thinking strategically and creatively within complex situations. You’ll join a motivated, dynamic, and high-performing team committed to personal and professional development and impacting youth.

About Educate! 

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. 

At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent. 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn, and thrive in today’s economy by: 

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and 

2) delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 390,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling, and growth-oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy,  #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth. 

Performance Objectives 

Move forward Educate!’s fundraising strategy through effective stakeholder engagement and relationship management of partners

• Build a deep understanding of Educate!’s sector and ecosystem, especially key players and stakeholders within the space. 
• Manage key relationships with new and existing partners, and provide support on key relationships owned by the CEO and Educate!’s leadership team. This includes compiling frequent and strategic communications to partners, supporting leadership to prepare for meetings and speaking engagements, and ensuring prompt follow-up and project management of action items related to Educate!’s fundraising efforts. 
• Engage in lead generation and prospect research, including supporting Educate!’s engagement in regional and global conferences. 
• Continuously work to develop and build upon Educate!’s existing fundraising and relationship management systems, processes, and procedures to increase efficiency and move Educate! towards its revenue goals.

• Identify new funding opportunities through calls for proposals and building a network of contacts at key funders.

Serve as a liaison between Educate!’s teams and partners to ensure compliance 

• Operate as a critical liaison between Educate!’s internal teams and external stakeholders and partners. Build relationships with other Educate! teams and become an internal "expert" on specific programs, solutions, or aspects of Educate!'s work.
• Project manage complex due diligence processes with Educate! partners, and build and manage systems and processes to ensure compliance with complex grant requirements and conditions. 
• Collaborate closely with Educate!’s internal teams to understand the requirements and expectations of funders, and coordinate the implementation of grant agreements
• Monitor and track progress against grant agreement milestones and deliverables.
• Lead and support the team in building new (and streamlining existing) systems and processes to make grant compliance, grant reporting, and information sourcing.

Develop and manage written materials to communicate Educate!'s strategy and impact externally with key stakeholders

• Draft, edit, and project manage high-quality communications, collaborating with other team members primarily as an editor.
• Support the development of high-quality grant proposals that are customized to address the key focus areas and requirements of prospective and current donors.
• Draft, edit, and peer review a large number of internal and external communications as well as work to ensure consistent messaging and branding within the fundraising function as well as across Educate!’s teams.
• Work closely with in-country teams to develop and maintain effective communication plans for gathering information needed for reporting and donor materials.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 4-8 years total work experience, with increasing responsibility and independence demonstrated over time.
• A self-starter, able to prioritize and manage multiple assignments and competing projects, take initiative, and work independently to a deadline.
• Demonstrated history of managing multiple stakeholders and experience managing large, complex projects from inception to implementation and completion.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; experience editing and preparing engaging and nuanced content for both internal and external stakeholders.
• An understanding of how to adapt and tailor communications, both written and verbal, for a variety of different audiences and purposes.
• Excellent EQ, judgment, and interpersonal skills, as well as comfort collaborating on a wide variety of tasks and projects across teams and external stakeholders and with individuals at all levels—from junior employees to C-Suite executives.
• Excellent time management, organization, and prioritization skills—with strong verbal communication skills required for project management/team coordination, and social judgment for cultivating new and existing relationships across teams and with organizational partners.
• High degree of proficiency working in a fast-paced, flexible, goal-oriented environment, with the highest level of personal and professional integrity.
• Comfortable working in a highly collaborative but dispersed team environment, with teammates working across time zones. 
• Willingness to travel frequently to Educate! offices regionally in East Africa as well as to global and regional events. 
• Full proficiency in spoken and written English
• This role is open to candidates in East Africa only. 

Terms 

• The location is East Africa 
• Compensation will be competitive and based on experience.
• Health insurance will be included.

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value. 
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization's mission and goals over team or individual goals.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down. 

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the CEO — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do. 

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community.  In creating this environment, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.  

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection, and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.