Senior Director, Grantmaking Strategy

United Nations Foundation; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

The United Nations Foundation seeks a Senior Director, Grantmaking to lead the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy and portfolio, shaping high-impact funding instruments and improving governance.

Based in Washington, D.C., New York City, or globally, this role collaborates with internal teams and UN partners to ensure excellence, transparency, and effective donor stewardship across the grant lifecycle.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in non-profit international grantmaking or related field.
• Experience designing or managing grant instruments and portfolios.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and complex processes.
• Proven ability to work with international and cross-cultural partners.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building with donors and beneficiaries.
• Strong grant compliance knowledge and due diligence.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and oversight of UNF’s grantmaking strategy and approach both in and outside the UN system, reflecting best practice in grantmaking governance, review, and decision-making.
• Oversee UNF’s regranting and growth of collaborative and pooled funding.
• Partner with teams to develop innovative grantmaking models to enhance impact.
• Steward internal grantmaking processes for excellence, including governance, review, and decision-making.
• Partner with program leads to maintain cross-team alignment and portfolio relevance to mission and values.
• Strengthen MEL related to grantmaking and knowledge management across the organization.
• Advise across internal teams on grantmaking compliance and guidance.
• Collaborate with Communications to ensure consistent messaging around grant opportunities and impact.
• Develop SOPs, templates, workflows, and quality standards across internal teams.

Skills

Grantmaking leadership

Cross-functional teams

Donor relationship management

Compliance knowledge

Communication skills

Job description

The salary range for this position is $150,000 to $200,000.

Position Overview

The UN Foundation has been a platform for collaborations and partnerships to support the UN and UN causes since it was created 30 years ago. This includes using grantmaking as a lever for change and designing and hosting novel funding instruments to pool resources and expertise on issues as varied as pandemic response, green shipping, coral reef conservation, gender-based violence, and childhood vaccinations.

Over its history, UNF has mobilized over $3 billion in catalytic grants to and outside of the UN and seed funding for high-impact initiatives by leveraging its founding capital to attract new partners. A diversified international foundation, UNF has mobilized resources from individuals, philanthropies, companies, bilateral donors, and others in more than 190 countries, and has channeled resources to beneficiaries in dozens of countries, as well as 35 UN entities.

The Senior Director, Grantmaking is responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s grantmaking practice to maintain excellence and ensure the dynamism, creativity, and strategic alignment of UNF grantmaking with the organization’s mission and values. This role provides strategic leadership to design and develop new grantmaking instruments, strengthen cross-team collaboration, and build capabilities, processes, and norms for high-impact grantmaking. This role is also expected to shape strategies for monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) and for training UNF teams to execute grantmaking at the highest standards.

The Senior Director, Grantmaking directly oversees and manages all aspects of UNF grantmaking into the UN system, as well as provides oversight and guidance to any UNF teams undertaking grantmaking outside of the UN system. In both areas, the scope of work includes a passion for staying at the cutting edge of best practice around design, governance, decision-making, and partner management, with a view to ensuring grantmaking excellence across the Foundation.

This position is based in Washington, D.C., New York City, or global

Essential Functions

• Lead development and oversight of UNF’s overall grantmaking strategy and approach both in and outside the UN system, reflecting best practice in grantmaking governance, review, and decision-making
• Lead oversight and strategies to enhance impact of UNF’s regranting role, including through growth of collaborative and pooled funding
• Partner with teams to develop innovative grantmaking models to enhance impact
• Steward internal grantmaking processes for excellence, including best practice in grantmaking governance, review, and decision-making
• Partner with program leads to maintain cross-team alignment, ensure grant portfolio aligns with the organization’s missions and values
• Strengthen a system of monitoring, evaluation and learning related to grantmaking, including through testing new approaches, knowledge management, and sharing best practices to foster collaboration and consistency across the organization
• Advise across internal teams (Finance, Agreements, etc.) on grantmaking compliance, ensuring program teams receive clear and consistent guidance
• Partner with Communications team to ensure consistent messaging around grant opportunities and impact
• Develop standard operating procedures, templates, workflows, and quality standards, and refresh as needed, working across internal teams to ensure systems and tools support grantmaking data needs

Oversight of UN Grantmaking

• Lead and oversee UNF’s grant portfolio to the United Nations, including over two dozen standing fiduciaries, multiple regranting relationships, and special project arrangements
• Provide exceptional stewardship to donors who grant to and through UNF to support the UN throughout grant lifecycle, prioritizing clear communication, transparent and predictable processes, and timely and accurate reporting
• Provide exceptional partnership to UN partners on all aspects of the grant lifecycle, and strengthen the UN partner experience through clear communication, transparent expectations, and predictable processes
• Serve as primary liaison and knowledge base for UN partners to UNF’s grantmaking to cultivate new relationships and identify new opportunities for engagement
• Lead relationship with the UN Fund for International Partnerships on all aspects of UN grantmaking, including day-to-day oversight and management of portfolio, biannual financial reporting, and ad-hoc requests
• Work across internal operational teams to ensure the highest level of service delivery to external partners, including timely execution of agreements and timely and accurate financial reporting
• Provide day-to-day leadership, support, and guidance to UNF teams who engage in UN grantmaking
• Ensure reporting to the UN, UNF Board and other stakeholders on UN grantmaking is clear and compelling

Other

• Serve as a source of advice, ideas, and leadership on excellence in business services and systems as these relate to grantmaking.
• Ensure adherence and compliance with all UNF policies and donor rules and regulations

Selection Criteria

Required

• 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in non-profit international grantmaking or related field
• Track record in designing and managing creative funding instruments and grant portfolios
• Demonstrated experience managing complex processes, cross-functional teams, or organizational operations
• Proven track record in working with international and cross-cultural partners
• Proven ability to lead through influence, build trust across diverse stakeholders, and provide coaching and feedback
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills, including with donors and beneficiaries
• Strong understanding of grant compliance standards, due diligence requirements, and philanthropic best practices
• Experience designing or improving workflows, SOPs, or governance models
• Familiarity with the UN or multilateral systems, and international grantmaking

Strongly Preferred

• Experience with continuous improvement practices and a track record of innovation in business services and systems
• Management experience, including managing project teams across different departments
• Ability to navigate organizations with collaborative, relational cultures while driving clarity and accountability
• Familiarity with grants management systems (GMS) and data management practices
• Written and oral proficiency in a second language, in addition to English

Benefits And Compensation

• a choice between two health plans through UnitedHealthcare (PPO or HDHP with HSA)
• dental insurance
• vision insurance
• flexible spending accounts
• 403b retirement savings plan with a generous matching contribution
• group term and supplemental life insurance
• short-term disability
• long-term disability
• back-up care
• employee assistance program

Additionally, all benefit eligible employees have 12 paid holidays, 20 vacation days, 10 sick days, 3 personal days, and 8 weeks of family leave care.

The United Nations Foundation is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.