About Village Capital

Village Capital, a grant-supported 501(c)(3), is reinventing the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Known for its groundbreaking approaches to supporting founders who are building solutions to emergent social, economic, and environmental challenges, VilCap unlocks critical social and financial capital for early-stage companies to maximize business and impact growth. Since 2009, Village Capital has supported over 170 ESOs, and 1,600 startups that have raised over $5 billion in investment capital.

Role Overview

Village Capital is looking for a results-driven Senior Partnerships Associate to support the Partnerships team in identifying and building new relationships in the US and Europe that can deliver funding results for Village Capital and managing of a core group of existing donors and networks. Here is what we are looking for:

• Team player: You enjoy working in a collaborative work environment where you are able to communicate transparently and confidently with your colleagues and external stakeholders. You think beyond current tasks and responsibilities to maximize the mission's impact.
• Natural connector: You find joy in solving puzzles and connecting dots. You will spend a lot of your time trying to make the right connection between our programs and the needs and expectations of our existing and potential partners. 
• Sharp Eye for Details: You have a keen eye for details. You pay extra attention to detail while navigating, combining, and distilling clear, accurate data from various databases.
• Deep curiosity: You have a humble, curious and empathetic attitude towards learning and creating solutions. You love exploring new things, finding new opportunities and developing new skills. 
• Great time management skills: You are adept at prioritizing and triaging obligations based on importance and results potential.
• Ownership and Accountability: You exhibit a profound sense of ownership and responsibility towards your tasks, responsibilities, and processes, aligning them with the organization's goals while ensuring timely and precise completion.

Responsibilities

The Senior Partnerships Associate will play a key role within the Partnerships team by cultivating and securing introductory calls and closing their own relationships with corporations, foundations and other bilateral and multilateral organizations. Focusing also on thematic and region-specific prospecting to identify co-funders and new prospect donors, the Senior Partnerships Associate will have the following responsibilities:

• Lead Generation: You will identify and make contacts with prospects to secure invites to CfAs and RfPs and build a broad network of prospect donors that fund work in line with Village Capital’s focus areas/thematic pillars.
• Concept Note and Proposal Development: You will be supporting the Partnerships team in researching, identifying, screening and assessing RfPs/CfPs, writing creative and compelling expressions of interest, concept notes and proposals, crafting detailed proposal budgets, and coordinating internal meetings to ideate and structure programs. From draft creation to meticulous proofreading, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the delivery of timely and polished concept notes and grant submissions aligned with the organization's mission. This also includes autonomous management of small-scale, simpler proposals and supporting the team in developing larger-scale, more complex proposals. 
• Collateral Development: Collaborating with the Communications team, you will create marketing and key collateral materials to attract new donor categories, prospecting and communicating our impact with our donor community. This will also include creating decks, one-pagers, concept notes and tailored messages.
• Maintenance and Management of Partnerships Databases: You will support the formalization, maintenance and management of existing partner and prospect databases in Salesforce with a high level of data integrity. You will also generate reports for the Village Capital leadership for trend analysis, pipeline and other points as needed.
• Prospecting Support: You will support VilCap’s outreach and prospecting efforts through various channels, including sending cold emails, conducting cold calls, and participating in face-to-face interactions during meetings and conferences. This entails adeptly navigating initial engagements, establishing meaningful rapport, and effectively communicating the inherent value propositions of our potential partnerships to the individuals you engage with.
• Reporting: You will compile information, prepare presentations, and write reports using internal and self-identified sources to be shared with relevant internal and external stakeholders. 
• Team Support: You will collaborate with teams across the organization to gather and manage information relevant to fundraising, including engaging potential funders. You will also support the Global Ventures (Programs), Communications, Finance and Partnerships teams in managing multiple programs, grants and other activities as assigned.
• VilCap Culture Building & Community Stewardship: Be an active participant in VilCap’s participatory governance system to promote and embody the principles of transparency, inclusion and equity and perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent work experience is required.
• Exceptional writing and proofreading skills with a keen eye for detail.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into clear and compelling narratives.
• 2 years of relevant experience in developing compelling proposals and concept notes that won grants from foundations, corporates and bilateral/multilateral organizations and grew the financial health and sustainability of a mission-driven organization.
• Experience working with government grants, foundations, and various funding sources and understanding grant application processes and requirements are a must.
• Strong research skills and ability to identify and assess potential funders and funding opportunities.
• Familiarity and comfort with Salesforce:
• Experience preparing presentations and progress reports, including good design skills are a must.
• Understanding of financial budgets and ability to collaborate with finance teams to structure accurate proposals.
• Experience living or working internationally with different nationalities and cultures would be a plus. 
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.